Blessing in Disguise
by LonelyZoner
Summary: An odd character wants to join the Xavier Institute for help, and she's not your average Mutant. Magneto wants her on his own side, but his son can't help but to take a liking to her. A humorous/serious romance with detailed action. OCxQS-Later On:OCxOC
1. Chapter One

_It's a little hard to follow, and I'm sorry that the chapters are short._

_Tell me if I get something wrong._

_If you have any questions, just ask._

_I should be updating at least once every two weeks._

_IF YOU DON'T LIKE STORIES WITH OCs, DON'T READ THIS ONE._

_Also, the time is sometime before Evan (Spyke) leaves for the Morlocks. _

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter One**

It was just another normal day for the X-Men teens--or as normal as they were used to--and all was well and burdened with homework. The halls were crowded and everyone was in a scramble, trying to catch the bus or a ride home. Kurt Wagner, a flirtatious goofy boy, was busy trying to show off to Kitty Pryde, an academic freshman...who obviously wasn't interested.

"Hey, Kitty," Kurt continued in his soft German accent, "I vas thinking zat maybe you and I could--"

With a heavy sigh, she interrupted, "How many times do I have to tell you? I don't want to go on a date with you. I'll never want to go on a date with you, and I don't know why you call going to a fast-food restaurant a date! Burgers are _not_ a delicacy!"

Kurt laughed at the thought. "Burgers? Vhy is everything with you Americans burgers? I vasn't going to ask if you vanted to go eat a burger with me." Kitty stopped in her tracks and gave him a challenging glare. "Again..." he added.

"Kurt, I know you think you want to go on a date with me," she said, her voice lightening up, "but you're just crazy about girls." Kitty continued walking. "I just don't think you're mature enough--Kurt?" She turned around to see him leaning against a set of lockers, running his hand through his blue-black hair. A pair of girls giggled as they walked by, muttering to one another. He waved at the both of them when they looked back as they walked around the corner. "_Boys_." Kitty said, almost with a vengeance.

Back at the mansion, Kitty was studying for her mid-term geometry test that was coming up in a few weeks. A rushing noise and a puff of smoke appeared by her bed. Usually it would disturb her, but after the fifth time in the last seven minutes she was used to it.

"What is it _now_, Kurt?" she demanded, dropping her pencil before she decided to use it as a weapon.

Kurt, now in his natural blue fuzzy form, replied, "I vas vondering if you--"

"Want a burger?"

"No--"

"Want a cheeseburger?"

"No--"

"Want a drink?"

"No, I already asked all of those things."

Kitty took a deep breath. "Then what is it that you want?"

"I vanted to know if you vanted to see the new girl." he said with a shrug. "But it doesn't look like you vant to because you're _studying_." Kurt said mockingly. Then he teleported out, leaving a round ring of smoke.

"New girl...?"

Professor Xavier sat in a vast, plain white room with no furniture. In front of him stood perhaps the most powerful Mutant of all, a girl with a long trailing brown cloak. Her eyes were shadowed from the wide hood, and her hands were hidden inside the sleeves. "Tell me, Matrona, what did your parents do to you?"

"My name is not Matrona." the girl said, her voice hoarse with sobbing. "It's Melaina."

"You aren't as dark or evil as you think. Just because you couldn't control your powers doesn't make you an evil person. That's why you're here--so mistakes like that won't happen again." Xavier was trying to get through to her, but none of his words seemed to be sinking in. "Your name is staying Matrona--it's the name your parents gave you and it has much meaning." With the mention of her parents, she had to look away. Suddenly, Kurt appeared between them, and almost instantly the strange girl was attacking with long curved claws. He gave out a yell as he fell to the ground, the attacker ready to strike. "Matrona, no! Don't hurt him!" Xavier yelled out, giving Kurt enough time to disappear as quickly as he came. The professor watched carefully as the claws simply dissolved into her fingertips, which seemed to be changing shape and color ever so slightly.

She put her hand down slowly and shakily, trying to control herself. "I didn't mean to... I--I'm just a monster." she whispered. "And I'm not going to tell you what happened at my old home. It's none of your business." Xavier looked taken aback, but she soon continued, "I can hear your thoughts just as easily as you can hear someone else's--but I won't let you pry through my brain because I can prevent it."

"You have...a strange power--or more than one, it seems." he said to her, trying to uncover Matrona's past. But, like she said, he couldn't reach her thoughts.

"I can tell that you're trying to get into my brain." she hissed at him.

"I'm only trying to help you. If you don't learn to control your power, others may suffer for it." The girl listened intently to his words. "You don't want to hurt or kill anyone, do you?" She shook her head slowly and held back her tears. "Then will you join us?"

"What choice do I have?" she said, feeling trapped.

"There is always a choice. You may leave now, though I do not recommend it."  
She thought for a moment and sat back on her knees, trying to think it through. "If I join the X-Men, will that redeem my murders?"

"You don't have to redeem yourself for that. It's a question of whether or not you will forgive yourself."

With a sigh, the girl nodded. "But I want to change my name to Mneme." Xavier nodded.

"That suits you." He turned his wheelchair around and headed for the door. Just before he went out, he turned to Mneme and said, "I hope you don't mind, but until you get your powers under control, I'm going to have to keep you isolated in this room."

The words made her feel like a freak, and it hurt her deep inside. Still she nodded and watched him as he left the room, shutting the door behind him. Kurt was down the hall, waiting for him.

"Professor, vhat vas she?! Vhy did she try to kill me?!" he asked frantically. "I've never seen anyone so creepy looking!"

Xavier shot him a warning glance before they continued down the hall. "She wasn't trying to kill you. In fact, she was trying her best not to attack you at all. Mneme isn't able to control her powers yet--nor do I even know what they are. All I know is that there is a great energy that needs to be tamed before it takes over her. I just hope Mneme is ready."

"Mneme? I thought her name was Matrona."

"She chose that name, and I don't think I want to attempt to argue with her."

"Oh..." Kurt was silent for a few seconds. "Vhy? Could she beat you?"

"She's able to block me from her mind, and that's a great enough feat for me."


	2. Chapter Two

_This is just mainly about Mneme's past._

_Pay attention to the tiny details!_

_It's a little confusing..._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Two**

Mneme sat in the corner of the plain room. There was no window for her to look out of, so she felt trapped inside a box. A dim light bulb hung from the high ceiling, giving her some sort of light source, but not enough to where she could see properly. She didn't know why Professor Xavier was keeping her isolated--if she wanted to get out, she could just bust through the wall, sink through the floor, anything she could imagine. But she stayed in the shadowed corner nonetheless.

Down at the dining hall, the X-Men teens were sitting tired and annoyed, waiting for the Professor to talk.

"As you probably have heard, we have a new girl who is willing to enter our academy." he finally spoke. Scott sighed; at five in the morning on a Saturday, he didn't really care about anything but getting back to sleep. "She's a little different, I might add, but you'll treat her the same as the rest of us."

Evan spoke up, "You mean that girl that Kurt was freaking about last night?" Xavier raised an eyebrow and pressed his fingertips together. "He said she was a creep and that she tried to kill him." The others looked at the Professor for a confirmation.

With a disappointed glance at Nightcrawler, he said, "She did attack him, but believe me, she was holding back as much as she could. Everything she does is out of instinct, so she can't help herself."

"Then how are we going to train her if she attacks us?" Jean asked concernedly. Rogue and Kitty were thinking the exact same thing.

"I'm hoping that she'll somehow train herself to control her actions, but I'm not exactly sure how long that's going to take," the Professor explained to them. "In the meantime just stay out of her room and you should be fine. I'll be there for the time being, trying to get through to her." As he turned his wheelchair away, everyone stood and made their way for the stairway--except Scott. Jean looked behind her and shook her head at the sight of him snoozing at the table. She walked back and shook his shoulder. Scott lifted his head off the table and looked into her beautiful eyes.

"C'mon, sleepy head. It's not like you to fall asleep while the Professor is talking." she said to him, helping him up by the arm. He stretched and walked beside her up the stairs. "What makes you so tired?" she said teasingly.

"It's too early for this--especially a Saturday..."

"Scott, you always wake up this early," she reminded him with a laugh. He shook his head.

"But we're not always training as hard as we have been lately." Scott told her. Jean silently agreed. "I'm not sure what the reason is, but the Professor has been making us work twice as long and three times as hard than usual." The two were silent as Jean walked him to the door of his room.

"Well, get some rest. We've got more training to do today." she said grimly. Scott nodded with a sigh and continued into his room as Jean walked away.

Back in Mneme's room, she was still sitting silently, contemplating on what she should tell Xavier. Should she just tell him the whole story, or just the main details? It was a hard decision, as she didn't want to relive the story at all. But just at that moment, a knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. "Come in." her cold voice said, sounding as if it had an edge sharp enough to cut heartstrings. Xavier came in, closing the door behind him with his mind. He sat only five feet from her, and Mneme tried her hardest just to remain sitting where she was. She looked at him, gritting her teeth as she forced herself to remain still. "You want to know what my powers are." It wasn't a question, but merely what Xavier had planned to ask her. He nodded. "Then I suppose I'll have to tell you the whole story," she decided, mainly to herself. "Fine. But I won't let you dig through my brain. I hate that feeling. Plus I might attack during the process."

"As I suspected. Please, start with your story. If you don't feel comfortable telling me, then we can wait."

Mneme's teeth grinded some more. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be." And so she started, "My parents were scientists. They studied multiple things. Their lab was under the house. That's where they spent most of their time experimenting. Then my mother became pregnant. When I was born, they were ecstatic to find that I had the X Gene. Of course, I wasn't able to use my powers at all at the time. So they created a substance that would amplify my powers. It only took them about a month to make it, and they mixed it in with my formula. After the first day of drinking it, they already noticed changes. Of course, just as they had hoped, my powers were being used in small increments. They took notes on me and recorded the powers I was using. Each day that number became less and less, which they didn't like. They had figured out that as a child, most Mutants have every power imaginable. They had also figured that as a Mutant gets older, different powers get ruled out randomly, until eventually only one or two powers are left, and that power is the one that the Mutant is stuck with.

"By the time I was a year old, they had developed multiple things to keep my powers within me, still amplifying them. I had lost the ability to heal myself, so they injected nanobots inside me, tiny microscopic robots that kill disease and heal cuts, bruises, almost anything. I was kept in a liquid that kept me immobilized. Their tests continued, and for thirteen years I was kept inside that giant glass cylinder. Then one day, my powers could no longer be put to use. You see, that was when there was only supposed to be one power. Since I had many, my body and brain became overwhelmed and ignored them. I was just like any other normal human being, and my parents wanted to change that, so they put the amplification substance within me, concentrating the powers so much that my body couldn't ignore them. They combined together to make one universal power, and it contained so many that the liquid keeping me paralyzed wasn't strong enough. I easily broke out and my parents were terrified of me. When I stepped forward, they would back away. Every movement I made, they gasped in fear, hoping that I wasn't going to hurt them.

"I didn't understand. Not until my father shot me with a pistol. It went straight through my forehead, but I couldn't feel the pain at all. Instantly the nanobots healed the wounds, and I turned hostile. The next shot he fired I dodged easily, almost as if it were moving in slow motion. I saw them as my enemies and killed them. Then I wept beside them for days. I tried to starve myself to death, but I found out that I don't need to eat...or sleep. So I went upstairs to find out what exactly I should do next. It was a big house, with lots of furniture. When I passed a mirror, I had no idea what to think. I was a hideous monster. My skin kept changing, and my body was constantly taking different shapes. Some were odd, some normal, but I could never figure out which was me. I got so mad that I destroyed every reflective thing in the house; then I took apart the couch fabric and made myself this cloak. After that you contacted me and I teleported myself to your perimeters, destroyed your defenses, and you put me in this room." She was finally finished, and she pulled back a sleeve of the cloak to show Xavier her hand. Indeed, the skin's texture and color was visibly changing, as was the shape and structure.

"So how do you think we'll be able to have you able to control your powers?" Xavier asked, but Mneme was prepared for that question. She conjured what looked like a metal collar out of thin air, but it was mangled severely.

"I destroyed this before I read what it was for. My parents made it so I wouldn't be able to use my powers--if anything got out of hand. If you could repair it and put a frequency dial on it my powers would be weaker and easier to control, but I'd still be able to use them. Fix that and everything will be one hundred times easier." she assured. "Beast should have no problem fixing it."

"My thoughts exactly." Xavier said with a slight smile. He took the collar and examined all the broken metal and wires, then exited the room. Once the door was closed, Mneme relaxed her muscles and collapsed forward onto her hands. Never before had she had such a hard time restraining herself. She took deep breaths, but soon her energy was restored. Sitting back again, her hand brushed over something on the floor. Claw marks. She had really penetrated through the tile's surface without even realizing it. With a sweep of her hand, the damage was undone, and fixing for a change felt good. Perhaps she wasn't just a destructive monster after all.


	3. Chapter Three

_This one came out a lot longer than the other two..._

_It's kind of boring, just a transition into the next chapter._

_Even though it's boring, that doesn't mean you can skip it! It's still important!_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Three**

It was lunchtime during school on Monday. Kitty stood in line next to Kurt, who was so tired from so much training that he had nodded off while waiting for the school slop. Kitty elbowed him hard in the ribs, making him immediately wake...and fall backwards. His tray flew through the air as Kitty reached out a hand to help him up. Kurt gratefully accepted, but only when he was pulled halfway up did the tray land straight on Kitty, mash potatoes slapped throughout her hair. Squeezing her eyes shut in anger, she crushed Kurt's hand as tightly as she could before dropping him to the ground again. Then she stormed off in a rage, yelling about how boys were so ignorant. Evan, who had been watching the whole thing from a nearby table, chuckled to himself and put down his sub sandwich to help his friend. Kurt was just watching dumbfounded on the floor as Kitty stomped away. Other students simply stepped over him to get their food.

"Man, you have to work on your skills." Evan said, pulling him up. Kurt shook his head and smiled at his pal.

"No way! The girls totally dig me," he said, swishing his hair and putting his hands on his hips. Evan raised an eyebrow and shook his head, returning to his table, followed by Kurt. They sat down and Evan ripped the sub in half, giving the unbitten half to Kurt. He thankfully took it and started scarfing it down.

"Smooth move with the mashed potatoes." Todd snickered as he walked by. Kurt put his sandwich down, furrowed his brow, and gritted his teeth. His glaring eyes followed Todd, until he sat down next to his Brotherhood friends. They all gave him challenging stares or laughed at him before he took his eyes off of them.

"Someone really needs to teach them a lesson!" he yelled angrily, pounding the table furiously with his fists. He took a vengeful bite of his sandwich and downed the rest in about three seconds. Evan looked at him in disgusted awe.

"What makes you so hungry?"

He didn't answer until he had finally swallowed the very last bit. "All this training lately has tired me out, so I slept in and didn't have enough time to eat breakfast." Kurt licked his fingers and leaned his elbow on the table.

"Yeah, that extra training is pretty tiring," Evan agreed.

"You going to eat that?" Kurt asked, indicating towards the sandwich. Rolling his eyes, Evan gave the rest of it to him.

Back in class, Rogue was quietly sleeping on her desk. She had also fallen asleep at lunch, drooling on the table happily. She too was tired from the training, though she was being more trained for her fighting abilities and not her powers. She didn't care. In her dream, she was sleeping on the biggest bed imaginable, soft and cushy with tons of pillows to rest her tired head on. She pulled the gray blanket over her head to stop whatever nuisance was trying to wake her up, muttering to herself as she did so. But no matter what she did, the nudging wouldn't stop. Tightening her fists, she woke up, ready to pound whoever was irritating her. "Listen, you stupid idiot!" she screamed out, bolting upright in her chair, only to come face to face with the teacher. Rogue wasn't expecting the teacher, but she didn't let down. Knowing she was going to get punished, she kept silent and stared her in the eye.

"Detention for a month!" the teacher announced, making Rogue sick to her stomach. She'd gotten weeks of detention before, but never a month.

"A month?!" Her surprised look seemed to please the woman, so she immediately went back to her death glare. "Fine." And with that she walked out of the room, holding her head up high.

Things for Scott weren't going as bad, but they weren't going good either. Although he was able to stay awake, everything anyone said didn't make sense. All the words stumbled over the other, confusing him more and more. He couldn't see the writing on the board clearly either, so he finally decided just to copy Jean's notes later. It seemed that she and Kitty were the only ones having luck in school at all. When the bell rang, Scott stumbled out into the parking lot and tried to stick the key into the ignition while Jean watched him concernedly.

"Maybe you shouldn't drive today. I could drive us." she offered, touching his shoulder gently.

"What? No, you can't drive my car." he protested.

Jean was still worried. "I know that the extra training is driving us all insane, but you're putting yourself over the edge. Just let me drive this once, I'll never ask again." Her voice was soft and assuring, and she removed her hand, waiting for his answer. "Scott?" His head leaned forward and rested on the steering wheel, pressing the horn. Jean raised an eyebrow, waiting a few seconds before pulling him back. She lifted him up with her telekinetic powers and sat in the driver's seat, then drove back to the institute.

Meanwhile, Mneme sat patiently, waiting for Beast and Xavier to enter the room. Looking into the future, she knew they were coming around the same time that the students got back. She didn't know what time it was exactly, but she could sense their presence coming nearer by the second. Beast was going to come in, so she was going to have to try not to get overwhelmed by someone else's attendance in the room--she didn't want to attack Beast like she did Nightcrawler. Xavier and Mr. McCoy arrived at her door. He raised a hand to knock, but she called out, "Come in," before his hand had even touched the surface. Xavier entered the room and Mneme braced herself, but the second was having trouble fitting through the door. "Two days. Just as I had expected. Mr. McCoy, I can see you're having trouble." Mneme looked at the doorway and it bent, wide enough to where he could easily fit through. "I've been practicing on focusing my simpler powers." she said, turning back to Xavier. As usual, she was sitting on the floor with her legs pulled up to her chest. Xavier opened his mouth to speak, but she said, "I'm glad you think I've perfected that one." Beast looked at Xavier with a hint of surprise on his face. A smile flickered across Xavier's expression.

"Indeed I am. I'm also glad to say that the device is finished and perfected." he announced. Mr. McCoy handed him two collars. Mneme wasn't expecting this, so she quickly read Xavier's mind to figure out what was going on. It seemed that the original one was repaired, but the second was the one with the dial. It wasn't quite finished yet.

Mneme looked from Beast to Xavier. "You want me to wear the first one. But you made a key for it. Only unlock it in times of emergency." She furrowed her brow. "Not what I was expecting, but I suppose I should use it until the other is ready."

Beast started explaining, "That's what--"

"--we intended. I know." Mneme wasn't happy with this. She didn't want to be deprived of her powers completely, but it didn't seem like she had a choice. Xavier moved forward and held it out to her. The urge to grab his arm and rip it off surged throughout her whole body, but she stretched out her arm to take it anyway. She fought with her instincts and controlled herself. Her sleeve fell back to reveal her hand, which had veins pulsing under see-through skin. It looked almost as if it were made out of tissue paper. Then it started turning smooth and scaly, until the texture spread to her hand. She sensed Beast's nervousness, but Xavier seemed unaffected by it. Then from the wrist up, it was a snakehead. Jaws clutched around the collar, it changed into a metal hand, consisting of only two wide fingers and a many-jointed thumb. With her other hand, which was identical, she took the key attached string from Xavier and unlocked it. Then, clipping it around her neck, her hands changed to what seemed like a normal Human's. She felt her hard boosts of energy leave her; her high-powered mind slow down, and even her mind reading ability was inoperative. "I feel..._weak_," Mneme told them, a hint of helplessness in her voice. She put the key around her wrist and sighed. "It's worse than I ever could have imagined..." Her usual cold voice had less of "I'm not even changing shape now."

But then something struck her: She would actually look _normal_. Mneme would finally find out what she looked like, and she couldn't wait. Her heart beat faster and faster with excitement, a feeling she couldn't remember experiencing. In fact, she couldn't remember anything about being a little girl. Her mind wasn't fully wiped clean from her past; only what she was too young to remember. Another thing was that she didn't have to struggle to keep herself from attacking. A smile spread widely across her face. She stood up, a little wobbly at first, and started walking around the dim room. Laughing with joy, she jumped up and down, and then ran over to Beast.

"Thank you so much, Mr. McCoy," she said ecstatically (or as ecstatic as Mneme could be), shaking his hand with both of hers. "And you also, Professor Xavier." Mneme said to him. Then she ran out of the door and down the hall.

"Kitty, please talk to me!" Kurt pleaded as they both walked through the front doors of the Xavier institute.

"Just give it up, man," Evan recommended. "She won't forgive you until--_what the heck_?!" he shouted, pointing at a hooded figure running around crazily, tripping, and laughing almost maniacally. Kitty gasped and took a step back, not sure what or who the person was.

"Oh no! It's the crazy girl! She escaped from her room!" Kurt panicked. "Don't worry, Kitty, I'll save you!"

"Get away from me!" she commanded him, but he grabbed her hand and teleported away.

Evan rolled his eyes. "Looks like I'll have to take this one on myself." He grew a few spikes out of his arm and flung them at her, pinning her cloak to the ground. "Yes!"

She tugged at her cloak, but it wouldn't budge. "Is this a game you play?" she asked confusedly.

"Yeah, the game where I knock you out and you get sent back to your room!" Evan told her, producing more spikes from his arms. The girl screamed and cowered, fiddling with her wrist. While she wasn't paying attention, he threw six more spikes at her. One hit her in the side, one pierced her arm, two pinned her sleeves together, and one caught her hood, pulling her to the ground.

"Evan! That's enough!" a voice yelled angrily at him. It was the Professor. "Is that any way to treat our new student?"

"New? New student? What? The crazy girl?!"

"She's not crazy, just misguided and uncontrollable." he corrected gently. "It wasn't a game, Mneme. You can get up."

"I can't. I'm not strong enough without my powers." she reminded. Xavier put his fingertips to his temple and lifted the spikes as easily as Evan threw them. The girl--who Evan now knew was Mneme--stood and brushed herself off. She walked over to him and held out her hand. "Hello, Evan. I'm Mneme." She shook his hand with a firm grip. "Your accuracy is good." she said to him, indicating to the holes in her cloak.

Evan didn't know what to say. He was just attacking her, and then she was acting like they were friends. "I'm...sorry about that."

"That's okay. You were just doing what you were trained to do." Evan didn't like the coldness in her voice. It hardly had any emotion. It made him feel anxious inside, and when he looked into the shadowed hood, he could feel her eyes boring into him. He felt as if she was looking straight through him.

"But I stabbed you! Aren't you even hurt...?"

Mneme pulled up her sleeve. Her pale skin showed no sign of a wound--not even a scratch. "It's the nanobots."

"Right..."

There was an awkward moment between them before Xavier said, "Evan, why don't you go round everyone up and bring them to an early supper." Evan nodded and ran off. The Professor looked at Mneme's shadowed face. "I believe you have a lot of explaining to do."


	4. Chapter Four

_Okay, this is just another boring transition chapter._

_It's not all that great, just something to lead up to the next one._

_I promise that it'll get better! The next one will be more exciting and less dumb._

_This chapter isn't as important, but you still need to read it anyway. It's not all that long._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own _X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Four**

Mneme hadn't felt comfortable telling everyone about what she had done, but she did anyway. Without her powers she got hungry, so between bites of tofu she told segments of her story. Around the table were Kurt, Kitty, Evan, Logan, Xavier, Jean, Scott, Hank, and Ororo. Rogue was also there, finally let out from detention. Everyone seemed to be listening intently, which made her slightly nervous. Nonetheless she kept a steady voice and told them everything, from her parents being scientists to the collar around her neck. Some seemed sorry for her, but others looked disgusted by her tale. "And now we're all here," she finished up.

"Did we _have_ to hear all that?" Kurt asked, bored with everything that she had said. Mneme, who sat across the table from him, gave him a glare--or what felt like a glare. He valued his life, so he stayed silent and pretended he never asked that.

"Your parents must have been total creeps! I mean, that's just weird what they--" Kitty stopped when she saw Mneme's knuckles turn white around her chopsticks.

Jean cast both Kurt and Kitty unappreciative glances. "So your powers are really hard to control?"

"That's what I said." Mneme simply replied. Jean was taken aback by her rudeness, but decided that the girl didn't know any better.

"Would you like Scott and me to help you? We're not through with highschool quite yet, but we would love to help you on our spare time," she offered kindly. Jean didn't know what to expect from Mneme, but it was worth a shot.

Mneme thought it over. She didn't really want more help--it made her feel weak--but if it meant getting her powers under control faster, she had to accept. "Of course. Any help from my..._friends_...would be wonderful." It sounded almost like she was struggling to say the "friends", like she didn't want to say it. Jean cast a sideways glance at Scott, who was trying his best to stay awake and pay attention. He obviously didn't catch Mneme's odd behavior, so Jean refocused her attention on the new student.

"I was never a language teacher, but the name your parents named you--Matrona--means 'lady', right?" Mr. McCoy asked curiously.

"Yes. And Melaina means 'dark'. And Mneme means 'memory'. Just in case you were wondering about those." Mneme told him bluntly. Things were silent and stiff while she waited for another question. Her gaze swept over her new companions, and each wore a grim or uninterested expression. This bothered her; did they not care about what she had been through?

Evan brightened up when a question popped into his head. "Since you have all these powers, which is your favorite?" he asked eagerly. "Sometimes I feel like my powers aren't as good as someone else's, and I wish I had a different one. But once I get started using mine, I realize that my power rocks. Since you have a bunch, which is the best to use?

Mneme was intrigued by this question. She had never been asked a question that had to do with her opinion, and yet she didn't know what to say. "I haven't uncovered all of my powers yet, I don't think," she started, "and I don't know how to use them properly or when I want to. But since you ask, I'd have to admit that I like my ability to move atoms and molecules..." Mneme answered, not sure if that was a good enough answer or not. But Evan seemed satisfied with it, so that relieved her.

"So...are there any other questions?" Xavier called out.

Kurt thought hard. There was something that was digging at the back of his mind.... What was it? It was driving him crazy... _Oh, yeah!_ he remembered. "Vhat do you look like now that your powers are...uh...turned off?" Kitty rolled her eyes at him; was that all he thought about? Mneme raised an eyebrow at his choice of words. She didn't even know, but she took off her hood. Her long, curled turquoise hair fell over her shoulders elegantly. Her skin was just like the moon: Pale and soft with a soft glow about it. Her eyes were an icy storm gray, piercing and full of tension. Her lips were a lavender-blue color, as if they were frozen. Her face was pretty, with high cheekbones and smooth features. The mere sight of it was intimidating; she looked like the beautiful, cold-hearted mage from the German storybooks Kurt's foster parents had sometimes read to him.

"That's quite...an _unnatural_ color for someone..." Kitty said timidly, not sure how else to describe it. Staring out at the others, Mneme saw their confused and surprised expressions. They clearly agreed with Kitty. Furrowing her brow, she grinded her teeth back and forth. How could she be so blind? She knew they would never like her.

"I'll be in my room." Mneme murmured angrily, pushing back in her seat and stalking off, leaving the rest of her tofu.

"Mneme, wait..." Storm called to her, following her from the table along with Xavier and Beast. The students looked after them, not sure what to do.

Rogue snorted. "Just another drama queen."

"Don't say that!" Jean told her. "Just because she doesn't like to be treated like a freak doesn't mean she's a drama queen."

"Kitty didn't help much," Evan pointed out. "Saying that her skin is an unnatural color was just cruel."

"What was I supposed to say? 'Where'd you get your tan?'" Kitty protested. With a groan, Kurt put his fingers in his ears and teleported out.

"She's a drama queen, and that's all there is to it." Rogue argued. "Anyone who storms off like that is just doing it for attention."

"Did you see the way you were staring at her? It was like she was a slug or something! You can't tell me that you would feel normal with a group of people just staring at you."

"What are you talking about? I wasn't staring! I couldn't care less about that girl. She acts just like you and Kitty."

"WHAT?!" the other two girls said in unison.

"You heard me. She's going to be one of those preppy, smart, popular girls, just like you two."

Evan shook his head in disbelief and walked over to a sleeping Scott and shook him awake. "I'd be going if I was you. There's a cat fight starting and I think the tofu will be flying any second." Scott looked over at the girls and nodded. He stood and slowly followed Evan out.

Logan said to himself, "Well, I think that went well." He stood and left the table, leaving the others to bicker amongst themselves. He made his way to the front door and went outside.

Outside of Mneme's room, Storm convince the two men that it was better for her to talk to Mneme alone. Once Ororo entered the room, Mneme looked up from her corner. Tears were glistening on her white face and her blue-gray eyes were full of sorrow and regret. She sat next to her, but she turned her face away. "Child, what's wrong?"

Mneme didn't answer. Storm wasn't sure if it was because her throat was choked up, or if she didn't want to talk about it. In truth, it was both.

"Everyone is beautiful in their own way, some with looks, some with talent." Storm started explaining. Mneme sat listening, but did not move. "I think your beautiful with both, but there's something else too." Wrapping her arm around Mneme's shoulders, Storm tried to comfort her.

"Like what?" Mneme asked her, wondering what she could mean.

"You're also beautiful because you bring back memories."

The girl raised an eyebrow doubtfully. "How is that beautiful?"

"In the city, there are always lights everywhere. That used to bother me all the time. No matter what time of day or where you were, it was always bright out. I thought it was the ugliest thing, until one winter snow covered the ground. It was so beautiful, with the streetlights reflecting off the surface, it was like a crystalline wonderland." she told her, remembering the time quite well. "Your face looks just like that right now, glittering and beautiful." Mneme didn't know what to say. Indeed, she did feel better, but Storm also had tears brewing in her eyes.

"Why do you think that it's beautiful?"

Storm smiled down at her and blinked the tears away. "Because before my parents were lost in an accident, that was the last trip I ever spent with them. I know how hard it is to lose your parents. It hurts to know that no one is there for you." Mneme looked down, silently agreeing with her. Ororo put her hand under Mneme's chin and lifted her face up. "But now that you're here, we'll always be there for you, no matter what." Then she hugged her tightly. Mneme wasn't sure what to do, so she wrapped her arms back around Storm in return.

"Thank you." Mneme smiled up at her. She yawned and stretched, then lay down on her side.

Storm silently left the room. When she got back to the dining hall, the girls fell silent. "I believe you owe Mneme an apology."

When she woke, Mneme saw that Storm had left. She had forgotten how nice it was to sleep and eat. She rubbed her eye and stretched, taking a deep breath to wake her up. Energy seemed to flow through her once she stood. Her stomach made a bubbly sound and an urgent feeling struck her. _What's that weird feeling?!_ she thought to herself, panicking. She ran to the door and dashed through it, only to find Jean, Kitty, and Rogue walking up to her.

"Listen, we're, like, really sorry about how we treated you and stuff." Kitty told her. Mneme bit her lip, trying to show that she was in a hurry.

"I guess we just kind of over-reacted," Rogue admitted, shrugging. Mneme nodded, but sweat was now beading on her forehead.

"Are you okay?" Jean asked, feeling her forehead for a temperature. It seemed normal, but she started dancing from foot to foot and holding her hands on her bladder. "You have to go pee?"

"Whatever it is, I'm sure you're right!" Mneme said loudly. "Am I going to die?"

"Wait--she doesn't know how to _pee_?" Rogue said.

"Like, yeah...that's weird." Kitty agreed, looking at Mneme with utter disbelief.

"Who's gonna potty-train her?" Rogue asked Kitty. The two girls looked up at Jean, who furrowed her brow.

"ME?"

The two younger girls nodded.

"_Fine_." she said, taking Mneme's hand and leading her down the hall and into the nearest bathroom.


	5. Chapter Five

_This is where it starts to get good._

_Tell me if I have any mistakes as far as time sequence goes._

_So if it is, please tell me. Remember, the time frame is somewhere before Evan goes to the Morlocks._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own _X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Five**

The next morning, Ororo went and woke Mneme from her slumber. Well-rested and potty trained, Mneme felt good about herself--probably better than she had ever been in her whole life. Mneme walked to the dining hall to find everyone dressed for school and crowded around a small dish of what was supposed to be breakfast. "What's wrong with the food?" Mneme asked the others, not knowing what breakfast was supposed to look like.

"It's tofu! _Again_!" Kurt complained. "Vhat are we doing vith tofu on our table? Vhere are the doughnuts?!"

"I've never eaten tofu for breakfast. Actually, last night was the first time I've ever eaten it..." Evan said to them, picking up a soybean pod, which was supposed to be a breakfast side.

Mneme picked a piece of it up. It seemed fine, just like the tofu they ate last night. "So what's wrong with it?" she asked bluntly, her patience growing thin. The way that they complained about the food angered her--she had never eaten normal food until the night before, and it tasted delicious.

"There's, like, nothing wrong with it. Just that it's...like...not a breakfast food," Kitty said, tilting her head to one side. Rogue crossed her arms, showing that she doesn't eat tofu for breakfast.

Scott took a square slice and stuffed it in his mouth. "Just eat it and get going. We don't have time to be wasteful. Just be glad that we didn't have to train last night." At the mention of that, everyone took some tofu and ran off, leaving Mneme to herself. Almost the whole tray was left, tempting her to eat.... She bit her lip to check if anyone was around. The coast was clear, so she picked up a pair of chopsticks and gripped a piece of tofu with them. It touched her lips and she devoured it in a split second. Throwing the chopsticks aside, Mneme picked up handfuls of tofu, stuffing her face until she thought it would get stuck in her throat. When she noticed what she was doing, she stood up and backed away from the table.

"Control yourself!" she yelled, pulling her hair. "It's just tofu. It's not like you have to eat it..." Mneme glanced at it, and then listened to her rumbling stomach. "I have to eat it!" she told herself, then ran at the dish and started shoveling more tofu into her mouth. She ate a few soybeans, too, pod and all. It was a stronger taste than tofu, almost overwhelming. The two combined were magnificent...

"I see you've found breakfast," a familiar voice said. Mneme instantly stopped and stood up straight. Her mouth was still full of food--too much for her to swallow. Her face grew hot and her eyes shifted guiltily.

"Professor Xavier--" she started, tofu bits flying onto the floor. "I'm sorry--" Mneme apologized, but more tofu and a soybean pod propelled to the floor. Nervous and embarrassed, she forced all the food down. "Ow," she whimpered hoarsely and gripped her throat.

"I thought you might do that, so I used a softer, milder food for you to start out with," Xavier told her.

"Thought I might do what?"

"Forget to chew your food. I knew you had never eaten anything solid before, so I chose something mushy. The mild taste is just so that you wouldn't find it too compelling." he said to her.

Nodding, Mneme said, "Oh, I understand..." But her gaze slowly drifted back to the food. He nodded that she could eat as much as she'd like, and Mneme picked up the chopsticks and started eating civilly.

"Go on, dig in. You'll be needing that extra strength for your first day at school." Xavier recommended, making her almost choke. "What's wrong? Not up to it?"

Mneme looked at him as if he were crazy. She couldn't tell him that she didn't want to go, so she made up some excuses quickly. "I don't have any clothes or supplies!" she said. They weren't lies, but they weren't the real reason she didn't want to go to school, either... At that moment, Storm came in with a teal V-neck long-sleeved shirt and a tight-looking pair of black jeans. Mneme looked at them in horror.

"Sorry, they were the only things I could find," Storm told her. But Mneme wasn't looking at them because they were ugly--in fact, she liked them a lot. She just was dreading the fact that she had to go to a school...with people...LOTS of people...

Then Scott appeared behind Ororo. "Are you coming? Jean and I have been waiting for ten minutes now." Mneme clenched her jaw tightly; she didn't like taking orders from people who were practically equal to her in rank.

"Don't rush me," she snapped at him, walking up and taking the clothes. "Thank you, Ms. Munroe," she added, running off to her room to get changed.

After a few tries, Mneme was able to put her new clothes on. She found shoes waiting for her in her room--wide black sneakers with a bright blue emblem on it--so she put those on and dashed out of the institute. Scott was leaning on a shiny red car outside with Jean sitting in the passenger seat.

"Sit here," Jean offered, pointing to the seat between her and the driver's seat. Mneme simply nodded and clambered onto the middle seat, then Scott took his place in front of the steering wheel. He started it and it revved nicely. "Your backpack is in the back seat with our stuff." she told Mneme as she clicked her seatbelt on. Scott did the same. Mneme looked over both her shoulders but didn't see one.

"I don't have a strap." she said to them.

Jean held it up. "This is the kind that you strap under your waist--like a belt." She clicked it in for Mneme and Scott started driving. The wind blowing through Mneme's hair felt relaxing, so she calmed down a bit. "Your outfit looks cute." Jean complimented.

Surprised, she answered, "Thank you.... Yours looks much better than mine."

Shaking her head and smiling, Jean told her, "That may be because your shirt is on backwards." Mneme looked down to see the tag sticking up in the front. She made a mental note that the tags go in the back, then pulled her arms in, twisted her shirt around, and put her arms back out. It was much more comfortable to wear it this way. "See? Your outfit is just as good as mine, if not better." Mneme smiled at her comment and enjoyed the rest of the ride to the school.

Once there, she exited out of the car behind Jean, who handed her a black shoulder bag. Mneme guessed that this was her backpack. She followed the two into the school.

"How'd you like the car ride? Purrs like a kitten." Scott said as they walked down the hall.

"I suppose." Mneme answered with a shrug.

"W-what?!" Scott said, completely appalled that the car didn't amaze her.

Jean leaned forward and whispered, "She doesn't mean anything by it. That's her first car ride--she doesn't have anything to compare it to."

Scott looked at her doubtfully. "Whatever you say..." Mneme followed them, observing the students at their lockers. They gave her stares, but not as if she was a freak, just out of curiosity. Mneme showed no expression, not sure how to react, but continued walking with them until Scott waved and walked down a different hallway.

"I'm going to bring you to the principal so you can get your schedule." Jean told her, and after a few more halls they came to an office. The principal was waiting for Mneme. "I'll see you at lunch," Jean said to her, then left. Mneme swallowed hard. She wasn't quite used to this, but it couldn't be too hard if others had done it and survived.

After a few minutes she was done. Mneme hadn't said a word. After a few minutes of the principal rambling on and on, she handed Mneme a piece of paper and the new student left. She shrugged and walked down the halls aimlessly. A few people were still at their lockers, desperately looking for books or whatnot. A group of boys stood against one set of lockers. One was really fat, one had longish hair, one was really ugly and slimy-looking, one was dark and had cropped hair, and one had white hair that looked like he had two antennae. Looking at the paper, it seemed that they were standing in front of her locker. She walked up to them and said, "Excuse me, but you're standing in front of my locker, number eight seventy-five." Her voice showed no tone of emotion, just a dead noise. And just like that they walked away. She raised an eyebrow and watched them down the hall. "That was weird."

Once around the corner, the darker boy changed into a taller blue woman with bright red hair. "That's her. Xavier already has her in the institute, so try to convince her to join us. Her powers are even more useful than Rogue's, so do your best. Whatever you do, don't scare her away or get on her bad side."

"She'll be easy," Lance said. "With all of us--"

"No. All of you would seem too conspicuous. She's a smart girl, so just one of you can do this. Otherwise it'll seem like she's being pressured." Mystique said to them.

"Leave it to me," Pietro said, and then was gone in a flash.

Mneme was muttering to herself about how small the space was in the locker when a shadow fell over her. She spun around and glared at the white-haired boy, who was standing over her with one arm propped up on the locker next to hers. "Do you need something?" she demanded. The boy just grinned at her, not answering. "I said, 'Do you need something?'" Mneme repeated.

"No, but it seems like you do." The boy pushed her aside and organized her locker in half a second. Mneme put her clenched fists down, but wasn't impressed. "This is your first day, right?"

"Obviously. Now move aside. I have to get my books for class." Mneme pushed the disappointed boy aside without a second thought and pulled out the correct books for her next four classes. Struggling with the weight, Mneme closed her locker and started walking down the hall.

The white haired boy walked backwards in front of her, almost as if to mock her. "Do you want some help with that?"

Mneme sneered. "Not from you." She tried to pull the piece of paper from her pocket by holding her books in one arm, but they toppled over onto the floor. After taking out the paper, she bent down to pick up her dropped books, but they weren't there. "What the...?" She looked up and the boy was holding them in one arm. "How did you--?" Narrowing her eyes, Mneme accused, "You're a Mutant, aren't you?" The boy grinned at her. It was a crooked toothy grin, somewhat charming. She didn't like it. Mneme looked at the paper and then at the clock on the wall. With an angry gasp, she snatched the books out of his hand and started storming off. "Great! Now I'm going to be late to class because of you! I don't even know where I'm going..." she added under her breath.

"_What_?!" the boy protested. "If it wasn't for me, you'd still be at your locker, hopelessly trying to organize your books!" He grabbed the books from her and held the paper in his other hand. After figuring out which class she needed to go to, he wrapped one arm around Mneme's waist and started running. Everything around them was a blur as far as Mneme could tell, and within a few seconds she was at the destination. Mneme looked around dizzily and tried to take a step, but his arm was still around her waist. She looked up at him in disgust, which he returned with another toothy grin. "Get your arm off me!" she yelled, pushing him away and grabbing at her books before they were out of reach.

"You're welcome!" he said sarcastically with a glare. Mneme took the paper from him and walked into the room with only seconds to spare. Pietro ran a hand through his hair. "She acts like she hates Mutants! That can't be what we're looking for if _that_'_s_ her." he said to himself, then zoomed off somewhere to skip class.


	6. Chapter Six

_I dunno about you, but I like this chapter._

_Don't expect anything too special; it's kind of boring._

_Yay! First fighting scene! Tell me how good or bad I did on it._

_Don't picture all the fighting moves seperately, try to make them blend and flow in your mind._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Six**

After fourth period, Mneme came out of the classroom dragging her feet. She was made out to seem like a total idiot by all her teachers, only because she didn't know what two plus two was, how to spell "you" or read, and in biology she had no idea what the food chain was... So far everything went horrible. Without her powers, she was stupid! Mneme had never been to school before, never learned anything academic--she had already known all that stuff with her powers... _I'm going to fail if I don't get that other collar soon.... They need to hurry up and finish making it!_ she thought to herself, walking to her locker to put her books away. She looked up suddenly to see the white haired boy leaning on her locker. "I should have guessed you'd be here to pester me."

He looked a little stung at first, but quickly recovered. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. Let's start over. Hi, I'm Pietro. What's your name?" he said, just listing the basics for introduction. Pietro held out his hand in a handshake. Mneme looked at it indifferently.

"Will you _move_?" she said with annoyance, throwing her books down at her feet. Pietro glared at her, and she glared back.

"I'm just trying to be polite and give you a proper introduction!" he argued, but it was pointless. "Shake my hand so we can get off to a good start, okay?" Mneme furrowed her brow and focused back on his hand. Mneme opened her mouth to speak and started lifting her own hand to shake his. Pietro smiled to himself; she certainly wasn't easy to convince, but at least he was able to make her his "friend". That's what he thought until Mneme chomped down on his hand and gave him an uppercut with the fist he was expecting a handshake from. The punch wasn't hard enough to hurt badly, but her jaws were strong enough to keep latched on. "You crazy girl! Stop biting my hand! Let go!" he yelled at her, trying to wrench his hand free. Mneme's head was yanked up and down, but she still wouldn't let go. The passerby stared curiously or laughed in hysterics. Mneme bit down harder and stomped on his foot several times. When that didn't seem to do anything, she jumped on his toes with both of her feet. Her weight was enough to make Pietro give a little yelp and grab his foot with his free hand. People crowded around to see the odd sight of a white haired boy jumping on one foot and holding the other while his right hand was being bitten by a psycho.

"Vhat's going on?" Kurt said excitedly to Kitty and Evan, who were walking beside him.

"Kurt, we're walking with you. We know as much as you do--" Kitty reminded, but he was already pushing through the crowd to see what was going on. Evan followed, almost just as interested. Kitty groaned at their stupidity: How was watching a school fight amusing? But, nonetheless, Kitty followed them into the crowd. When she got to the front, she was just as surprised as the other two by what she saw. "_That_'_s_ what they're laughing at?!"

Pietro was finally able to yank free of Mneme's bite. Looking at his bleeding hand, Pietro laughed. "Is that all you got, little girl?" This outraged her. Mneme felt her heart pound faster every second. The more she thought about it, the more blind with rage she got. She ran up to him and took a swing, but he easily dodged it.

_He's too fast,_ Mneme told herself. She looked at the key around her wrist and was tempted to unlock her collar... _No, only for emergencies._ She convinced herself. Holding out her hand, she offered a handshake. Everyone was confused, including Pietro.

"So you're giving in...? Just like that?" he asked her hesitantly. She nodded in response. Pietro timidly took and hand and shook it.

"What is she _doing_?" Evan said in disbelief.

"I told you she vas crazy." Kurt reminded bluntly. Pietro grinned down at her.

"I knew--" he started, but the wind was knocked out of him when Mneme rammed his chest with her head. He fell back onto the lockers doubled over, trying to catch his breath again. "You little..." he said angrily, glaring at her with a vengeance. She put her hands on her hips and stared down at him with her expressionless face. Everyone started laughing again, mostly at Pietro.

Kurt elbowed Evan. "I told you she was crazy," he said, but this time more like she was awesome instead of a weirdo. Evan sighed.

"I'm never going to figure you people out." he said to himself. But suddenly Pietro was gone, and in a blur he had knocked Mneme off her feet with a single uppercut. Kitty covered her eyes as the crowd gasped and Mneme lay motionless on the floor. Pietro stood over her.

"That'll teach you not to mess with people stronger that you," he said with a laugh. But it didn't last long. Mneme kicked her legs up and hit him straight in the temple. Now on her hands, Mneme was able to flip over onto her feet. Her busted lip was already healed, and she wiped the drop of blood off her chin.

Now people were chanting, "Fight, fight, fight!" Pietro stood and rubbed the red spot on his head. He raised a fist to strike Mneme, who knew she wouldn't be able to evade or block the attack no matter how hard she tried. She cringed, ready to take the blow, but it never came.

"Don't you know that a man never hits a voman?" Kurt said, holding Pietro's fist in mid-strike. "That's just common sense."

"What's goin' on?" A boy from Pietro's group stepped in from the crowd, along with the fat kid and slimy boy. "If you're tryin' to fight you might as well include us in it."

Evan and Kitty stepped forth to defend Kurt. "He's got backup, too," Evan said, ready for anything that would come his way. Mneme put a hand on Kurt's chest and nudged him.

"This is my fight, not yours." Mneme wasn't trying to be ungrateful, she just didn't want the others thinking that they had to defend her.

"You can't take on all four of them!" Kitty said lowly to her. Mneme held up the key to remind the three that she could take on anybody. "Don't even think about unlocking it--you still don't have any control!" Kitty pushed Mneme's hand back down to her side.

"Kitty's right; you can't risk everything over some stupid punk." Evan tried to convince. Suddenly the crowd went quiet and parted, revealing a teacher who didn't look pleased.

"What's going on here?" he said sternly. He was fat and balding with glasses. Mneme stepped forward before anyone could say anything.

"Pietro and I were just having a...disagreement. The other six were just trying to break it up. They had nothing to do with it." she told him. He looked at the others skeptically. Kitty, a highly academic student, was probably the only one he didn't suspect to have any part in it.

"You," he said to Pietro. "Is that what happened?" Mneme stared him down, and he looked straight back at her with the same hate.

"Yeah. It is."

The teacher huffed and looked at him with disapprovement. "Alright. Detention for the two of you, the rest of the week. You'll be staying after school scrubbing chalkboards and cleaning desks." There was a pause where everyone just stood awkwardly, not sure what to do. Mneme and Pietro still glared at each other, and there was so much tension that it wouldn't be a surprise if a stream of static was seen between the two. "Why are you just standing here? GET TO LUNCH!" he hollered, making everyone scramble towards the cafeteria. "And go see the nurse about your hand," he added to Pietro, almost as if he was annoyed. After that, the fat teacher just walked away. Mneme's companions came up behind her.

"Are you sure that's what you want to do?" Kitty asked her.

"I'll be fine." Mneme spat, never taking her eyes from Pietro's stare. Just then, Jean came through the hall door a ways behind the Brotherhood boys. She looked at the whole scene before reading Mneme's mind to see what happened. That is, until her eyes shifted to look up at her. "I don't like people digging through my mind. If you want to know, just ask." Jean, slightly stunned that Mneme could tell what she was doing, turned her attention on Pietro. Within a few seconds she had gotten the full story, then she turned to Mneme with a disappointed look. "What?"

"Nothing.... Come on; we're waiting for you at the lunch table." Jean said, leading the four back the way she came. They passed a girl with blonde hair going the opposite way while they walked to the cafeteria. Once at the table, Mneme didn't have much of an appetite. She looked angry enough to break a table in half. Now that she thought about it, her books were on the floor where she threw them down. After everything she went through, Mneme still wasn't able to put her books away. Did that mean that Pietro had won? "Mneme, you can't be doing this." Jean said to her gently. She didn't answer her, she didn't even acknowledge that she was listening. "Detention on your first day isn't a good way to start out. There may be a chance that I can convince the teacher to let you off this once--"

"No." Mneme said, getting up from the table. _I have unfinished business to attend to,_ she added silently. She wasn't just going to just lie down and accept that she lost, not now and not ever. "I'm going to put my books away."

The blonde girl walked up to the boys, a scowl on her face. "You three leave," she told everyone but Pietro. "A group this big will seem suspicious." With a shrug, Lance led the other two boys down to the cafeteria. "Now how do you expect us to get her on our side?!" she scolded Pietro. She didn't bother transforming into her natural look for this.

"Take it easy, Mystique. I'll get her on our side." he insisted. "It'll just take more effort than I thought. She's stubborn." He swiftly picked up her books that had been kicked around the hallway, then opened her locker and put them away.

"You'd better, or so help me--"

"You said she was more powerful than Rogue, but her only power is to heal herself. I saw it with my own eyes. She's weak and she has no brains. What do you want her for?" he demanded. "It feels like I'm wasting my time."

Mystique didn't like his tone, but she answered him anyway. "I know she's more powerful than Rogue. I've done my research and it turns out her parents 'disappeared without a trace'. Their blood was found all over the lab, but no trace of anything else. And now she's at the Xavier Institute. Does that sound like she has no powers?"

"That doesn't prove anything." Pietro challenged.

"Well, her parents couldn't have dissolved into thin air on their own, could they have? My guess is that Xavier is keeping her powers compressed." Mystique said to him angrily. "Figure out what her power is and how it's being kept concealed." And on that note, she walked away and out of sight. Pietro furrowed his brow in frustration. How was he supposed to get a psychotic, stubborn, hateful, uncontrollable girl to talk? He zoomed out to find a more peaceful area to think.

Mneme opened the door to the hallway and walked down it. A strong wind blew by her, almost knocking her off her feet. _That's weird..._ she thought to herself, trying to straighten up her hair. Scanning the floor for her books, Mneme made her way to her locker and stood up, frustrated that her books were no where in sight. "Who would steal school books?!" _Pietro would. _she said to herself. _Just to get back at me. I hate that boy...! Well, I should probably get my lunch money._ Mneme entered her locker combination: 37...7...1...

_Click!_

Mneme opened the locker door and reached in her bag. At the bottom was a few dollars and some change. She pulled it out and almost shut the door, but opened it back up when she saw that her books were back in place. Bewildered, she noticed the piece of paper slipped in between two of them. Mneme pulled it out and opened it.

"'See you at detention.'" she read aloud. "_Pietro_ put my books back?!" Angry and disorientated, she ripped up the paper and threw it on the floor, slamming her locker door before stalking away. _But why would _he _want to put my books back?_


	7. Chapter Seven

_I'm very pleased with the way this chapter turned out._

_This is the main reason why I'm changing the rating to "T"._

_Tell me if you liked how the story is building character--or if it's not at all._

_My apologies for updating so much. I've been typing every hour of daylight practically._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Seven**

Once art class, gym, and history were over, Mneme was the last to exit the classroom. At the doorway she found herself face to face with Pietro--_again_. Rage filled her to the boiling point. His smug face and ignorant stance seemed to be taunting her. Jean had told her to ignore annoying people, but how was she supposed to ignore him when he showed up _everywhere_? Without a word, she sidestepped to get by Pietro, but he put his arm out and leaned it on the doorframe, blocking her path. "What do you want from me?!" she demanded, stomping her foot incompetently. "I don't need help with any of my books, there's only one to carry! Now out of my way!"

"Hold it, muffin," he said to her, putting his hands on her shoulders. She could see that one was bandaged, but that didn't make her have any less remorse.

"'_Muffin_'?" Mneme quoted. "Just who exactly do you think you're talking to?!"

"We've got our detention to do together," he reminded her. Mneme rolled her eyes.

"How could I forget?" she said with heavy sarcasm. "That doesn't mean I can't put my book away--" Pietro took her book and was gone and back within a second. "Hey! I could have done it myself!" she yelled at him. "Now I'd like you to leave me alone!"

"Your friend Rogue has cafeteria work," Pietro said, ignoring her question altogether. "And we've got the rest of the school to ourselves." Mneme stiffened and swallowed hard at his choice of words. Although she was nervous and stunned, she didn't show it in her face.

"'_Our_selves'?" Mneme restated. "No, there's no 'us', 'our', or 'we' at all." Pietro raised an eyebrow.

"We're not leaving until all these chalkboards are cleaned, and that's no easy feat. Face it, you're not even tall enough to reach the top of it. I can have this whole school done within one minute, and with you it'd take hours." He said this all very calmly, as if helping her was just a simple act of kindness. Mneme knew there was something odd here, but she wasn't sure what Pietro was playing at.

Unmoved, Mneme said, "I don't need your help. I'll take this half of the school and you can have the other half." She turned and walked back over to the vast chalkboard on the wall and picked up the eraser. Pietro was at her side in an instant, leaning on the blackboard and holding out a spraybottle and papertowels.

"You're going to need these if you want to get all that chalk off." Mneme snatched them away and started cleaning. "I'm just trying to help," he told her.

"If you really wanted to help me, you'd just zoom us straight out of here." Mneme said. "Besides, I don't need your help." She pushed up her sleeves so they wouldn't get dirty and then continued. Pietro zoomed over to a desk and sat on it, blissfully watching.

"The janitors are at the exits to make sure we don't try to escape."

"They wouldn't be able to see us."

Pietro grinned. She was finally cracking, she had said "us". "I could...but I'm sure you'd get in trouble. I couldn't care less about the trouble I get in, but you're new and I'm sure, being in the Xavier Institute and all, you want to keep your goody-two-shoes record clean."

Mneme stopped and put the bottle and papertowels down. "How do you know I'm in the Xavier Institute?!" she demanded angrily. His face fell at her accusation.

"I--you see--I just--" he tried to explain, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Her icy stare seemed to pierce right through him. "Uh..." That's when he noticed something on her wrist: A key. Her sleeves had been covering it before, but now.... All he had to do was figure out what it went to. It could just be a key to a door, but the odd shape--it was short and the teeth were needle-like. It was also shiney and black--just like her collar. His eyes examined it, then he saw the keyhole: A simple thin rectangle. "That collar on your neck!" he said, standing and pointing at it. "Is that what's holding your powers in?" Mneme showed no expression at all.

"What? Are you crazy? It's just a fashion item." she lied, but luckily it sounded believable. "And so is the key, in case you were wondering," she added, seeing that he was looking at it. Pietro still had suspicion, but he believed her. He felt stressed and slightly embarrassed--he had to get away from her. Mneme's gaze just made him feel inferior, and he didn't like it. Then he was gone, out the classroom door. Mneme clenched her jaw even tighter. "Stupid boy," she muttered to herself, turning around to pick up the spraybottle and papertowels, but they were gone. "What--?"

"Looking for these?" Pietro asked, his voice not jeering as usual, but upset. Mneme turned around to look at him.

"Yes, I am." She took them from him and went to clean the board, but raised her eyebrows when she saw that it had been cleaned spotless. "And the desks, too?"

"Yeah, I cleaned those." Pietro put his hands on his hips. "I don't care if you needed my help or not, because they're clean now. I'm out of here." And then he left again. Mneme felt strangely lonesome once he was gone, but brushed the feeling aside and went to the front door of the school. Indeed, there was a janitor there, waxing the floor as he stood guard.

"They're done." Mneme told him, but he wasn't ready to believe it. "Go check the classrooms for yourself." she told him. Mneme waited for the janitor to return instead of just running off while she could, but he was back after looking in just one class. He let her go (slightly confused) and she walked out into the sunshine. With a deep breath, she started on her way back to the institute. She walked off the school grounds and along the grass, watching cars pass her by. Eventually she made it to the city, but she continued walking wherever her legs took her. In fact, she had no idea where she was going. Mneme didn't really care where she went, just as long as she could think to herself. Why was Pietro trying to help her? How did he know about her being a part of the Xavier Institute? And, more importantly, how did he know that her powers were being concealed? The fact that he had guessed her collar was the device that did it was disturbing in itself. She wanted to know what he wanted from her. "Why would he--?" she started aloud to herself, but suddenly a hand was over her mouth and she was being dragged down an alley. Mneme kicked and flailed--she even bit the person's hand--but nothing seemed to be working against he or she. Then Mneme was thrown against the door built into the brick wall of the building. When she hit it, it burst open and she started tumbling down the stone steps. When she landed on the cement floor, she was dizzy but able to take in her surroundings. That door clearly led to the basement or cellar of the building, but there was nothing in it but a wooden table with chairs around it and a dim light hanging from the ceiling. Mneme stood, a little wobbly, and tried to see what was going on. It seemed like the four people around the table were moving in on her. She realized this too late and they grabbed her. "NO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!!!" she screamed desperately, trying to break free. The four people, men she saw, held her down on the table, each holding one of her limbs.

"Took you long enough to bring one down here," one said gruffly to the man who had just closed the door. He walked down the steps, and with each step Mneme's heart pounded faster and faster. The two holding her legs grabbed the ankles of her pants and started pulling them off, and though she tried to prevent it, they came off anyways. Tears flooded her eyes because she knew what was going to happen. She started choking and sobbing, which resulted in a slap across the face.

"Quit your crying; we ain't done nothin' to you yet," the man holding her left arms said to her with a laugh. The others laughed also, and the fifth man had reached the bottom step. Mneme thrashed, trying to prevent what was coming next. She tried to muster enough strength to pull her left arm free to unlock her collar, but he was too strong. Breathing heavily, Mneme dug her nails into the men's wrists, willing to try anything to free her left arm. Without her powers, she would never be able to get away...

"LET ME GO! PLEASE, JUST LET ME GO!" she pleaded again and again, tears blurring her vision. She closed her eyes as the other man came closer.

"Let her go," a valiant voice commanded. Mneme opened her eyes to see a silouhette in the open doorway. Her hopes vanished when she saw that it was only a young boy, her age probably.

The fifth man grunted. "I ain't got time for you, punk. Just leave us be and pretend you never even came here."

"NO! DON'T--" Mneme called out to the boy, but one of the other men punched her in the face. The pain felt almost unbearable, and the blood rushing to her ears made her practically deaf to the noise around her.

"I said for you to leave her alone. Let her go now and no one gets hurt," she heard the boy say. It sounded familiar somehow, but her mind was too clouded to tell.

"What are you gonna do--?" the man challenged, but it was too late for him and the others. In only a few seconds Mneme felt their grips release and heard them tumble to the floor. Strong but gentle arms lifted her up, then she felt the breeze flying through her hair before her vision faded...

Back at the institute, Storm was just finishing painting Mneme's new room. This one was bigger, with a bright light and a closet. The furniture would come in later, as soon as the paint dried. It was a stormy gray color, very soothing. Ororo created a small gust of wind and sent it around the room, making the paint dry in just seconds. "Okay, boys! Bring in the furniture!" she called out. Kurt and Evan brought in a pretty stone dresser, sweat dripping from their foreheads, and set it down against the wall. Scott was carrying a matching vanity and Logan came in with a bedside table.

"Vhy does he get to easy stuff?" Kurt asked Evan lowly, indicating to Logan. The other boy shrugged. Pieces of a stone four-poster came floating through the doorway, Jean following. She started assembling it easily, slipping the black veil curtain through the pole and connecting everything together. Then the mattress was put on--also done by Jean--complete with cheats and a black and white blanket. Kitty fell through the ceiling and onto the bed holding a bunch of flashy clothes items.

"Here's all the stuff I decided she could have." she announced, then started sorting the folding clothes into piles--shirts, pants, etc.

"Great job, everybody! I'm sure she'll love it." Ororo told everyone happily, then the doorbell rang. "I'll get it." Storm went down a few halls until she came to the main stair. She jumped down from that and to the floor, seeing that Professor Xavier was on his way also to the door. Ororo walked beside him and opened the door, surprised to see Quicksilver decked out in his suit. But that wasn't nearly as shocking as what he was holding. "Good heavens, what's going on?!" she exclaimed in horror, a hand on her chest.

"What is it--?! You!" Scott yelled from the top of the stairs. He dashed down, followed by Evan, Jean, Logan, and Kitty. Kurt teleported next to Storm in and instant.

"Vhat did you do to her?!" he demanded.

"That's some way to treat your friend's rescuer," Pietro said. He shoved a fainted Mneme into Scott's arms. "And...uh...here are her pants," he added, handing Ororo the black cloth draped over one shoulder. His cheeks flushed a bit.

"What the heck are you doing with her pants off?!" Kitty said with disgust. "What _did_ you do to her?"

Jean quickly interrupted. "He's telling the truth--he didn't do anything. He saved her from some thugs in a cellar."

Xavier came forward. "Thank you, Pietro. Is there something you need? Rest? Food?"

"Yeah, I need for you to keep a better eye on her," he said sternly. Then he zoomed out of the place, kicking up a long trail of dust as he went. Once outside the institute's perimeter, he sank against the stone wall. Thinking back about how he had been following her, trying to get information, he felt guilty for doing it at first. But if he hadn't, it was uncertain where Mneme could have ended up. The only problem was that he wasn't sure if he had saved her because it was part of his mission or because he simply wanted to.


	8. Chapter Eight

_This one is REALLY long._

_It's kind of weird, but you'll understand at the end._

_If you don't, just tell me what you don't understand and I'll try to explain._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own _X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Eight**

Rogue, finally done with her dish duty at the school, had walked back to the institute and was now at the door. Pushing the big door open and shutting it behind her, she noticed that it was very quiet. "Somethin' ain't right here..." she said in her heavy southern accent. Shrugging, she walked up the stairs and then remembered that everyone was probably decorating Mneme's new room still. Rogue leisurely walked down the halls and down to Mneme's room. "I'm back!" she said, opening the door. "Anything I can--what the...?" Kurt, Kitty, Evan, Storm, Jean, and Scott were there. Everyone was whipering around Mneme's bed, then looked up at Rogue when she entered. "What's goin' on?"

They all looked at each other before Ororo spoke up, "Some thugs tried to...harm her in an alley cellar." Rogue put a hand on her hip; she didn't see what the big deal was.

"So what? She's fine now, ain't she?" Rogue said with a shrug. Kurt, Ororo, and Evan moved aside to reveal a sleeping Mneme. Rogue walked up and took a look at her. "She's sleeping," she said bluntly. "What's the big deal?"

Jean looked at the others. "Should I tell her?" she asked the Proffessor. He nodded to her. Jean took a deep breath and started telling about what she saw in Pietro's memory of what happened. Rogue looked back down at Mneme. She did look a little...disturbed. Even under the blanket she looked stiff as a board. "So Quicksilver brought her back. Wolverine left to go take care of those guys." Rogue felt a little guilty for judging Mneme so quickly, but that didn't mean she was going to be friends with her.

"Why didn't she just unlock the collar?"

"She was pinned down from what Pietro saw. She wasn't strong enough without her powers." Jean said to her. She sat on the side of the bed and brushed the hair off of Mneme's worried face. Her eyes squeezed tightly, then she opened them. All eyes were on her, not sure what to do.

Kitty said, "Are you, like, okay?" Mneme tried to clear her head. Everything was all a total mix of odd feelings and memories.

"I...guess so." She turned to Jean. "_You_ saved me? You sounded like a boy." Jean looked at her with an odd expression.

"I didn't save you. Pietro did."

Mneme looked at her with disbelief and confusion. "Funny. That's not going to work to cover up how your voice sounded like a man's." But one look at everyone's face told her that Jean wasn't joking. "So he...rescued me?" Her face, for once showing intentional expression, looked like she could have been shoulder deep in leeches. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Why?" Evan asked. "That dude just saved your life!"

"But he hates me! Well, he's supposed to hate me.... Why would he want to save me?" she asked Jean, expecting she was going to be the only one who would know.

Jean looked at her uncertainly. "I detected a lot of mixed emotions--I couldn't pinpoint exactly how he was feeling--"

"IT'S FINISHED!" Beast declared as he burst through the door, holding the new shiney black collar for Mneme. Everyone looked at him oddly. "Oh...sorry. I just thought Mneme would be happy to hear..." He came over to the bed and handed her the device. Mneme took it into her hands and looked at the precious three-inch wide metal collar. She was so happy--now it was certain that today's incident didn't happen again. "It uses the same key--you can put it on now." Mneme looked at it once more. The dial had five lines around it--probably the levels of how much of her powers it kept concealed. It was disguised as a teal jewel, polished and round.

The key around her wrist was hesitantly lifted to the collar around her neck. Mneme braced herself to keep her powers under control and inserted the key.

_Click._

A force surged through her veins and her pulse quickened. Once again her image was changing, this time she had bark for skin and her hair was made of long vines. Her muscles and mind screamed for her to launch an attack at everyone staring in awe, but she forced herself to take the collar and snap it around her neck. She did so shakily, and then she was returned to normal. No power surged through her at all.

"The first notch holds your powers in completely, the others let you use all your powers but in different incriments." Mr. McCoy explained. Mneme stood and walked to her vanity, then looked in the mirror. This was the first time she had ever seen herself, and she liked it. She looked a lot older than just a freshman, but she was short--five feet at most. The collar matched her shirt nicely and now it really did look like a fashion item. She turned the dial to the second notch and felt a bit of what she had felt before. It was easy to control her looks, so she looked completely the same. "Right now you're using twenty-five percent of your power, so it should be easy to control." But even though she could control her powers, it had a downside: She saw everything in her old memories, her parents observing her and writing down things on clipboards--Mneme lost herself in the painful memories of never being loved and her face returned to its hateful expression.

"Is something wrong?" Jean asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Mneme instantly grabbed it and started crushing it, then stopped when she saw what she was doing.

"I'll say there's something wrong," Scott said, pulling Jean away from Mneme.

"My apologies." Mneme said, trying to sound sincere, but her voice just sounded monotone. No one was listening to her though; they were concerned about Jean.

"I think it's broken," Scott said, leading her out of the room. Mneme looked at Jean and used her mind to bring her back over to her. "What are you doing?! If you hurt her, I'll--" Mneme looked at him and sealed his lips together. He tried to pry them apart with his hands, but it was no use. Everyone looked at her, too scared to attack her.

"Hold still," Mneme told Jean, then took her hand and rearranged the bones, mending them back together. "There. Better." Scott's lips returned to normal with a wave of her hand. Then she looked down at her bare legs. With one hand lifted, her pants flew over to her from the bedside table. They split down the back of the legs, then the threads reconnected when they were positioned correctly on her legs. "I have some thugs to take care of."

"Mneme, no!" Storm said to her, but she had already disappeared into thin air. "Jean, show Kurt where the cellar is. That's probably where she's headed. He can teleport there and stop her." Jean nodded and walked over to him, then put her fingers on his forehead.

Evan put a hand on Nightcrawler's shoulder. "I'll go too, just in case."

Mneme appeared at the cellar, where she saw the five men sitting around the table. They looked up at her in suprise, a few of them chuckling.

"Come back for more, have ya?" one said to her, and they stood up. As they advanced on her, she lifted a hand and they were flung against the stone wall. As they were held there by her force, Mneme's other hand was held out, making a double of the table. One of the men was brought off the wall and his head was shoved straight through it, then his body was slowly disconnected from his neck. His yells rang around the room, music to Mneme's ears. She tossed the body aside with a flick of her wrist. A rope decended through the ceiling, tying itself into a noose. Mneme walked up to them, flattening them more against the wall. She sensed that Wolverine had arrived, so she enchanted the doorknob so when he touched it he would become immobilized.

"Oh, God--don't do this!" one of the four men left pleaded. This only angered her more.

"_YOU_'_RE_ PLEADING TO _ME_?!" she said, placing a hand around his throat. "After what you tried to do to me, you're _pleading_? Just as I did?" Her hand burst into flames, searing his neck. He started screaming, but his body was immobilized. Mneme let go, and with a sweep of her hand his whole body caught fire. She dropped him from the wall and watched calmly as he writhed on the floor. "It's one of my obedient fires, so, because of my command, you'll be burning for a long time." Her gaze fell upon the other three men, her eyes smoldering with hate. "As for you..." The next man in line was taken off the wall. His arms were dislocated with a single look from Mneme, then long nails appeared out of no where. Slowly they decended through his flesh, pinning both his arms together. Then he was placed in the noose, left on his own. The last two men watched in horror as their companion kicked his legs, trying to get air. Mneme laughed coldly at the sight. "Pathetic Humans."

"You're Human too! How could you do this to your own kind?" a thug said from behind her. Clenching her fists until her knuckles turned white, Mneme spun on her heal to look at the man pinned on the wall. She was shaking with anger.

"Do you honestly think I've _ever_ been treated or thought of as Human?!" she said with a fury. "So now, when I'm about to kill you, you decide that I'm Human?! That I have feelings?! That maybe I didn't like the way you were treating me?!" The man was silent, fear in his eyes. She knew that he was thinking that she was a maniac. "You think you're _my_ kind? No, I'll never be like you." Mneme narrowed her eyes and he started screaming. The three thugs learning their lesson were making a complete racket, so she sealed their lips together. The muffled yells filled the room and echoed, a pleasing sound.

"What are you doing to him?!" the last man shouted, looking at the one next to him. Needles were poking out of every inch of skin he had, blood dripping everywhere. The man in the noose was silenced, as was the one with the needles. Mneme ceased the fire, the thug's burned carcass was completely black. He sat in a fetal position whimpering. Mneme ended his life with one clench on her fist. There was nothing but an eerie silence, all except the heavy breathing of the last man alive in the room.

"What shall we do with you?" Mneme asked, watching the one with needles collapse to the floor. "Ah, yes. I know." She lifted her hand and slowly started closing it. The molecules and atoms in his body all started turning radical on her command. There was so much pain that he couldn't even scream. Mneme was enjoying the powerful feeling until she heard a familiar sound behind her. At that point, Mneme squeezed her fist shut and watched the last of them explode from the inside. Blood splattered over the room, staining her clothes. "Hello, Kurt, Evan." Mneme greeted.

"Man, we're too late!" Evan said, his eyes looking at all the destruction.

"Yeah, vay too late..." Kurt agreed.

Mneme chuckled to herself. "I knew you'd be coming, so I changed your course each time. That's why you ended up at so many different places. I just had to get the job done before you came to interupt." Then she teleported back to her room.

"That vas a vaste of time..." Kurt said, looking at all the dead bodies. "How did she do that?" he asked, indicating to the needles sticking out of the bloody thug.

"I have no idea..." Evan said, looking at the hanged man. "I don't even want to know."

Mneme appeared on her bed, splattered with blood. "Jean, I blocked your vision from seeing me." she admitted without a care. She and Storm were the only ones in her room now.

"Everyone is out looking for--" Jean started, but Mneme snapped her fingers and they all appeared in her room. Wolverine was able to move again, and the blood stains from Kurt and Evan's suits came out in liquid form and joined the other glob in the air.

"Mneme?!"

"What happened to you?!"

Everyone was trying to get her to talk, but Mneme just stayed silent. She held her hand over the blood stains and they came out, floating in the air as a liquid again. When Xavier started to speak, the room fell silent. "Mneme, the X-Men do not kill for vengeance. You know that." Xavier was not angry, just disappointed.

Everyone looked at Mneme, waiting for her answer. "My anger got the best of me. It won't happen again." Her eyes drifted slowly towards Xavier. "Ever." she added, but there was no regret in her eyes. Xavier left the room, motioning for Beast, Storm, and Wolverine to follow. The students left behind them, not comfortable being in the same room as Mneme.

Xavier was holding a conference with the teachers. "Something isn't quite right with her." he started.

Logan grunted. "You can say that again. She's acting like a complete phsyco."

"That's not like her. I think it's her powers. As soon as she changed the dial, her face completely changed." Storm pointed out.

"It can't be her powers--that was only a small portion of her powers. It couldn't have consumed her." Beast said.

"Not consume her, but change her. I could see her face. She was deep in thought, like she was remembering something." Storm thought for a moment. "All she has are horrible memories. If someone could perhaps make her happier, maybe she'd seek less revenge and see things our way."

"It's worth a try," Xavier stated. "I remember her saying that she doesn't like hurting people, it's just her instincts taking hold of her."

"So we're going to keep her powers completely supressed until she finds some friends?" Logan said, not thinking that this plan was going to neccessarily going to go their way.

"Until she accepts us as family," Beast corrected.

Back in her room, Mneme sent a gust of wind to close the door. After that, she stood at the window and looked down at the pool. The moon sparkled on the surface. Then she sensed someone--her head lifted, alert. Quickly she opened the two window doors and started crawling up to the roof. She gripped the top and swung herself up and around with no effort at all. There was somone standing there, cape blowing in the wind. Using one of her powers, she easily identified him as Magneto. She stood, fists clenched. "You want me to join you."

"Yes. I see great power in you. You could be put to great use if you join me." Magneto said to her, his eyes narrowing.

"No."

Not expecting this, Magneto narrowed his eyes. Such an ambitious girl filled with so much hate he would have expected to agree on the spot. "Here you are nothing. Why won't you join me?"

"You want to use me as a tool for killing. Here they see me as one of them." Mneme knew he wouldn't understand, though.

"Mneme, you enjoy killing. You killed five men this night."

"That's true, but I don't enjoying killing. It's an urge I can't control at times."

"Why fight it when you can use it?" Magneto said to her.

"Because I'm not a killer." And with that Mneme jumped off the roof and into the pool, landing on her back painlessly. She sank to the bottom and took a deep breath, filtering the water automatically. She thought to herself. Why had she killed those men? Did they deserve to die? She didn't want to kill them--but the urge had just taken over. That urge couldn't be instinct. Instinct was what triggered how she attacked, how she retaliated. Even if her father hadn't shot at her, she still would have killed them. Even if those thugs hadn't advanced on her the second time, she still would have killed them. No, it wasn't instinct. The urge was hate. Hate had driven her to kill all seven people. _But what if I come to hate myself? What then?_


	9. Chapter Nine

_This chapter is slightly boring, mainly because of explaining._

_Remember, the Brotherhood isn't with Mystique anymore._

_I promise that I'll include the other X-Men students more._

_I don't know if that happens before of after Evan goes to the Morlocks..._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Nine**

The morning sky was pink as Mneme turned thoughts over and over in her mind. She knew what they had said during the conference. Seeing it only subconsciously, she had to focus to see and hear the details properly. Wednesday. It was time for school. Mneme knew she had to go; she couldn't hide forever like she wanted to before, and she had to thank Pietro. With one last deep breath and a sigh, Mneme walked across the bottom of the pool and stepped up the stairs, emerging completely dry. Mneme could tell that they knew where she was; otherwise they would have come looking for her. Everyone had already left, so she easily teleported to the school grounds. All the students were walking into the building from the busses or from their cars, so Mneme walked among them, blending in with the crowd.

As soon as she got to her locker, Pietro was waiting there. He didn't look smug, but deep in thought. He just stared at the floor while leaning his back on her locker. "Good morning." she greeted him, startling him a bit. At the sight of her he lightened up a bit.

"Hey. Some day, yesterday was." Pietro commented, rubbing his hand nervously through his white hair and not making eye contact. Mneme could tell he was waiting for a verbal beat-down, but she wasn't going to give it.

Mneme grabbed his wrist to catch his attention. His cheeks turned pink and he looked at her face with a distant curiosity. "We need to talk. How does during detention sound?" she asked him.

Pietro raised an eyebrow. "Uh...sure." he said, shrugging. "Sounds good to me." Looking around, he added in a low voice, "Those guys were on the news this morning. They said the scene was too gruesome for viewers, so I ran in to get a quick peek. That was you, wasn't it?" Mneme nodded solemnly. "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me," he told her while grinning.

"It's the collar," she whispered, tapping the jewel dial on the new device. "I can use my powers now, just not all of it." Pietro looked stunned.

"You did _all_ that without using all of your powers?" He laughed. "You must be strong. I saw the damage you did to those guys. It was brutal." Pietro laughed again.

Mneme grinded her teeth. "It's not funny." She couldn't meet his eyes as she said this. It was torture, what she put those men through. Did they really deserve the death they got? "Thank you for getting me out of there before."

"Any time," he said to her. "Catch you later. I've got things to do, classes to skip." Pietro stretched his arms over his head.

"Yes. See you later," she repeated, a little less enthusiastic. Asking him about why he saved her would have to wait until detention. Mneme opened her locker and got the correct books for her next four classes, then went off to geometry. Once she entered the class, she went to the back of the room and looked at the board that Pietro had cleaned yesterday. It had new writing on it--"_Turn in yesterday's homework._" Mneme looked in her memory to see what the homework was. She hadn't known what it had said yesterday, but now she saw that it was just a long list of math problems. She got out a piece of paper and wrote down the problems and answers, about seventy problems done in about ten seconds. Her hand flew across the paper, hardly visible at the speed it was going. Once done, she put the pencil down on the desk, a small trail of smoke rising from the tip. The student next to her stared in awe. "_What_?" Mneme demanded with a snarl.

"N-n-nothing..." the boy said, averting his gaze fearfully.

"Good." Mneme said, returning her gaze to the board, but the teacher was standing in the way. He was thin with brown hair slicked back. His ugly orange knitted vest had a horizontal red stripe and was worn over a white sweater, with his beige dress pants to top off the complete nerd look. He was walking around, collecting homework.

"Great work, Cindy." he complimented, giving her a second look. Mneme looked at the blonde girl. The preppy way she dressed and the way she looked indicated that she was popular. Mneme went inside his mind and looked through his eyes. Cindy's paper was completely wrong--in fact, she hadn't done one thing write. The teacher took a red pen and wrote an "A+" at the top. Mneme crinkled her nose in disgust and exited his mind.

"Thank you, Mr. Marvin," Cindy giggled. Mneme's knuckles turned white. He walked up to Mneme and took her paper.

"Who did you copy off of?" he wondered.

"What?" Mneme said in disbelief.

"There's no way _you_ could've gotten all these right." Mr. Marvin said with a chuckle. He clicked his red pen and wrote on her paper. "'F' for cheating," he accused.

Mneme looked up at him with despise. "Excuse me?"

"Cheating won't get you anything good," he said to her. He walked to the boy next to her and picked up his paper. Mneme felt like setting him on fire at the spot, but she knew that she would regret later. Besides, she had been an idiot yesterday. How could he believe that it was her work? So she took her book and flipped to the back, chapters the class hadn't covered yet. She walked up to the board and picked up the chalk. There were one hundred-three questions on the page, and she jotted them down. The teacher looked up at her. "What are doing?! Get back in your seat." he told her.

_I don't take orders from losers like you, _she said to herself silently, continuing to answer the questions. Mr. Marvin didn't know what to say; she was answering each question exactly right and speedily too. Within two minutes they were all answered on one half of the chalkboard. How she fit that many problems on there was a mystery in itself. "Now do you believe me?" she asked him challengingly. He walked up and checked her book for an answer sheet or something.

He shut her book with a snap. "Just because you can memorize the answers to a hundred-three problems doesn't make you smart, Mneme," he said with a smile. Mr. Marvin handed the book back and turned away, going back to collect papers. Angry at his stupidity, she threw the book at the back of his head. He collapsed to the floor, dizzy and uncoordinated. Mneme stood over him.

"Just because Cindy is pretty doesn't mean she's smart, either!" she spat. "I bet you think you're a somebody, now that you're a teacher, huh?"

"W-what?" he said, not sure what she was getting at.

"When you were in highschool, you were the biggest nerd there ever was. Everyone picked on you for being so smart. You were weak and everyone stole your lunch money." Mneme dug through his memories to find more information. "So you became a teacher so you could boss others around. For once, you were in charge of your life. Now you think that Cindy is pretty and that because she's pretty and popular and looks like the girl you always wanted to date, she deserves a good grade." Mneme's monotone voice was heard all over the classroom, and both Cindy and Mr. Marvin turned red with embarrassment. "You're just a dirty man who'll never get a wife," she concluded to him, sure of it by looking in the future. Of course, people changed their minds and can change the future, but this was almost set in stone. "And _you_," Mneme pointed at Cindy. "You're just a slut. There isn't one football player that you haven't dated, and pretty soon your boyfriend will find out about your affair with Carlisle, whoever that is." Then Mneme turned on her heal and stormed out of the room, listening to everyone's laughter. _That's going to lead to more detention..._ Mneme saw in the future. She snuck outside through a hall door and jumped up onto the roof. Her feet landed on the metal with a light _ting!_ and she sat to wait for the bell to ring.

Pietro stood behind the school, waiting for Mystique. She finally showed a few minutes later, emerging from the shadows in her white tunic. "What kept you?" he asked her with a hint of impatience.

"I was held up by Magneto. He's after Mneme also." Mystique said, narrowing her eyes. "I was able to escape unscathed, though. What did you find out?" she quickly changed the subject. Pietro wasn't sure if he wanted to tell her about the collar. He thought for a moment, trying to decide what to do. "Well?" she pushed on.

"I...saw that she wears a collar. It holds her powers in so she can only use a bit of it." he told her. "And she killed the five men yesterday." Pietro felt horrible for telling her everything he knew. "That's all I know, but I'll find out more today."

Mystique seemed pleased with his answer. "Very well. I'll be leaving now," she ended with a grin. She morphed into an eagle and took flight, leaving Pietro by himself...or so she thought.

"Well done," a voice said from around the corner of the building. Magneto came around to Pietro. " I have to say, Mastermind did well with that illusion of me. To trick Mystique into thinking that the team was on her side was good thinking. Now luring her in with Mneme as the bait will make it easier to finish her off." Pietro still didn't feel comfortable; something kept nagging at his mind and he had an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Yeah...real smart," he said half-heartedly. The bell rang around the school, signaling for the next period to begin. "I...uh...gotta go." He zoomed off to think about what this could all lead to and where his priorities stood.

Mneme sat on the rooftop, watching a beautiful eagle fly in the distance. But she could sense something different... _Mystique.... What is she doing here...?_ she wondered. It didn't matter. Sliding off the roof, she landed on her feet and entered the school. Mneme snapped her fingers and her books appeared into her arms, though nobody noticed.

"Nice job with Mr. Marvin!" someone congratulated, clapping her on the back. Mneme spun around, claws growing out of her fingers and ready to strike. With difficulty, she put her hand behind her back, retracting the claws and looking at the boy standing there. "Are you okay?" he asked her, the same boy who had sat across from her in class. Mneme nodded, though her face was strained. Her mind had recognized his action as an attack, and half of her wanted nothing more than to slice him in half. But her other half only wanted her to be docile, so what would become of a conflict like that?

"I've got to get to class," Mneme said, giving any excuse to get away. Quickly she walked down the halls and to her next class--French class. That would be easy, since she already knew every language practically spoken by Humans.

The rest of her classes until lunch were basically the same: The teachers didn't believe that she had gotten that smart overnight, but Mneme just used her powers to make them believe her. It was better than hiding on the roof, she decided. After biology ended, Mneme exited the room and started down the hall, where Pietro soon caught up with her. She wasn't surprised; in fact, she had been expecting this without even looking into the future. "How's it goin'?" he asked her.

"You have a guilty conscience." Mneme said to him. His face looked worried, so she added, "Life is so predictable to me already, so I won't pry..." This was actually true, that Mneme didn't quite like knowing when, where, and how everything was going to happen. It was one reason she seldom looked into the future. With Mneme's words, Pietro loosened up.

"I heard about Mr. Marvin. Everyone's calling you 'The Avenger' now. I guess that's your new nickname, _Avenger_," he said with a laugh. Mneme didn't like it--vengeance was one thing she was trying to avoid. "What do you say I buy you lunch?" Pietro offered. By this point, they had reached Mneme's locker. She opened it and put her books away before answering.

"I don't need to eat." she said bluntly. "But I'll sit with you and watch you eat." Now that Mneme had her powers back, she had no desire to eat. Pietro shrugged and they started towards the cafeteria.

"Hey, Mneme!" Kurt called from behind. "Oh..." The two turned around to see the rest of the X-Men students standing with unsure expressions.

"Yes?" she asked, but she knew that they were downhearted to see her with Pietro, someone considered an enemy.

The others looked at each other uncertainly. "Are you, like, eating with us?" Kitty asked.

"I told Pietro I would sit with him for lunch." Mneme tilted her head to one side. "Is something wrong?" Playing dumb was easier than she thought.

"Of course not," Jean said with a smile. "Would you two like to eat with us?"

Pietro snorted. "Yeah, right. Nice try." Jean looked taken aback.

"We'll, uh, see you later," Scott said, rubbing the back of his neck. Pietro started walking away, so Mneme nodded to them and followed. Mneme conjured a paper bag from the air.

"You forgot to visit your locker for your lunch," she said to him, "so I thought I would save you a few seconds." Pietro was handed the bag. Inside was a bologna sandwich, some chips, and a soda.

With a sigh, he gripped the bag tightly. "It was going to be for you, but you don't want it, so we'll have to give it to the Blob." Pietro opened the cafeteria door and Mneme walked inside, saying a short thank you as she did so. "No problem. We'll be sitting with those guys, over there." Pietro indicated to where his group sat. He and Mneme walked over to the table, and they stood up.

"That brat giving you trouble?" Lance asked, clenching his fists. Mneme looked at him indifferently.

"Take it easy, guys," Pietro said as he sat down. He put his feet on the table, leaned back, and tossed Blob the bag. "She's with me." He pulled her out a chair next to him, and they all sat down. Mneme looked at each of them. Just to get a quick summary on what kind of person each was, she read their minds.

_Kitty, food, and flies. A bunch of mindless idiots._ she concluded to herself. Behind her, she could sense her companions looking at her with concern. _I'm fine--I'm not joining them or anything,_ she thought to Jean.

"She says she's going to stay with us," Jean told the others, hearing Mneme loud and clear.

"Yeah, but for how long?" Scott asked. "We all know the Brotherhood is going to try and get her to join them."

"You guys, you're actin' like she's stupid. She knows that the Brotherhood is just a group of rejects," Rogue said, trying to settle things. They looked over at them. A chip was floating in midair, just out of Fred's reach. The other three were laughing at the stunt.

"That's no lie," Evan said with a laugh. The students returned to their food, but Jean kept watching with concern. Blob stood on the table and the chip floated higher, then the table split in half from the weight. Pietro, no longer having the table for balance, started falling backwards. Mneme grabbed his forearm, pulling him back up. Jean's heart sped up as they stayed like that for a few more seconds, Pietro giving a sheepish grin. It wasn't a mystery that he had feelings for her. Mneme smiled back at him, a beautiful smile that was assuring. That was the first time Jean had seen Mneme smile at all, then the two started laughing together.

_That can't be good..._ Jean thought to herself, dreading what might become if this situation.


	10. Chapter Ten

_..._

_......_

_........._

_This is a total romance chapter._

_I can't beleieve it's coming to this..._

_Well, enjoy! And this chapter is important, even though it seems pointless._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Ten**

The rest of the day, Pietro played Mneme's laugh over and over in his head. When she had smiled, it was like the whole cafeteria lit up--maybe she had made the lights brighter with her powers by accident or something. And then her laugh...it was so silvery and light--he would never have expected it to come from a girl so monotone. Every time the scene went on in his head, he just felt like he was on a cloud or something. Pietro lied in the tall grassy field on the edge of the school's property, smiling to himself. He had never felt like this before--not at his old school, not ever before then. For hours he sat and thought to himself, until he heard faintly heard the school bell. He zoomed off to meet Mneme for detention. He'd never been so happy to go to detention in his life.

Mneme sat on the desk, waiting for Pietro to show up. In a few seconds he was sitting on the desk next to hers, holding a bunch of pretty flowers. "I picked these for you," he said as he handed them to her. The maroon roses and white carnations were so pretty, they didn't even have one flaw. "And this," he said, holding a pink carnation, "is also for you." He moved her hair behind her ear and pinned it back with the flower. Mneme felt warmth that she had never felt before, deep inside. She held the flowers up and examined them closely.

"Pretty..." she said in awe. The combination of the two flowers smelled wonderful. "Thank you. I wasn't expecting this, so that makes it all the more special." Mneme said to him with a slight smile. Pietro returned it with a small grin.

"So, what did you want to ask me?" he reminded her about earlier. Mneme's shoulders slumped in a relaxed way.

"I was going to ask why you saved me," she started. Pietro looked a little uneasy at first, but lightened up when she added, "but it doesn't matter. Before, if someone was in that state I would have thought that it was their own fault to get caught up in that mess. I would have let those men have their way. But since it was me in that situation, I realized that no one deserves that. I don't even know if those men deserved to die, but I wasn't going to leave them--they would just do the same to some other helpless girl." Mneme touched the soft petals of the flowers, knowing that she was leaving the dark side of the story out. Then she told it, "But I also did it for vengeance. I couldn't let them live--my hate towards them was too great." Pietro somehow seemed to understand. For some reason he grinned. "What?"

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll always be there for you." Mneme looked at him, her eyes full of joy but brimming with tears. Then they just poured out, streaming down her face. "No--don't cry! I'm sorry!" Pietro jumped off his desk and wrapped an arm around Mneme's shoulders.

"I'm alright, please don't be sorry. It's just that...that's so kind of you. That's the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me." Mneme wiped the tears away from her eyes and laughed at herself. "I feel so stupid. I'm crying over nothing."

Pietro sat back on his desk. "Nah, you're just Human. You have emotions and wants and needs." Mneme smiled, looking down at her flowers. He saw her as a Human. The thugs had called her a Human, but somehow it was different this time. Her stormy eyes met his silvery blue ones.

"You're not as pig-headed as Evan says." Mneme said shaking her head.

"Well you're not as crazy as everyone says," he retaliated, not harshly though.

"You don't know me well enough to say that."

"They don't know you at all. They shouldn't judge you before they know you." He said, punching her shoulder playfully. Mneme gasped and braced herself for the urge to attack, but it never came. Her body was perfectly calm. Relieved and surprised, Mneme smiled widely. "As for Evan, we're arch rivals. Don't believe a word he says about me."

"Alright," Mneme answered. Her joyous look made Pietro feel almost just as good. "You want to walk me home? I could just teleport there, but--"

"No! I'll walk you," he said quickly before she could change her mind. He took her hand and zoomed to the edge of the school grounds, but this was a place Mneme hadn't been before. Although she had something like a built-in GPS system, she let Pietro explain. She liked the sound of his voice. "We're at the back of the school grounds. Hardly anyone ever comes here, but there's a trail leading to the city. I thought we'd take the long way to the institute and enjoy the scenery." Mneme looked down the trail covered in leaves. It certainly looked peaceful, with the birds chirping and a slight breeze blowing.

"Of course," she said. They started walking, Pietro still holding Mneme's hand. As they walked down the winding trail their fingers soon became intertwined. Mneme's heart pounded so fast that she could've sworn that Pietro could hear it. She looked down at the flowers, so beautiful. He had said that they reminded him of her, which made her mind go numb with happiness. A butterfly fluttered over to the flowers and perched gently, stretching out its proboscis for the nectar. "Look," she said to Pietro. "It's so pretty." The two watched as a second butterfly came, perching next to the other. Soon they left, fluttering around each other. Their fluttering felt just like how her heart felt, so she imagined they were lovestruck. It was amazing that in such a short time they found each other. It reminded her of a certain situation that she was in. Her face turned red at the thought while she watched the two butterflies ascend above the trees and into the sky.

The rest of the walk was just as perfect, but also seemed to be teasing her. Everywhere things were paired--birds, plants, bugs. After an hour or so, the forest thinned around them and the trail gave way to a sidewalk. This part of the city was familiar, a very common way to get to the institute. The walk in the city was less peaceful, but the two were just as silent, completely lost for words. When they neared the tall gates leading to the grounds of the institute, Pietro stopped and smiled down at her.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said to her as he started walking away. As he went on Mneme's hand gently slipped out of his, giving her such a feeling that she didn't know how something so strong could be contained inside a body. She clasped her hands around the flowers and held them closer with a sigh. Her blushing cheeks gave her white skin a soft glow that she had never attained before, and she teleported into her room. She conjured a clear glass vase, putting it on her bedside table, and placed the flowers in it, taking enough moisture in the air to put in the vase as water. Taking the carnation from behind her ear, Mneme placed it in the middle of the rest. She sighed and flopped down on her bed. Could the day be any more perfect?

A knock sounded at her door. "Come in!" she called, a happy tone in her voice. Ororo opened the door and walked in, observing the new addition to the room.

"You seem happy," Storm said to her, a hint of curiosity in her voice. "We expected you back an hour ago, but it looks like you either went flower picking or some boy likes you." She raised an eyebrow inquisitively and the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile. Mneme sat up and looked at her guiltily.

"No way!" Kitty said, poking her head in the doorway. Mneme knew that she and Jean had been walking by and were listening intently. Jean appeared behind her. They came into the room. "You've got to tell us all about it!" she shrieked, jittery with the news. Mneme scooted back to the headboard and offered them to sit down. She described every detail of the walk, how she felt, and the flowers on the table.

"It was so amazing, like any girl could dream of, only it was real." Mneme finished. She had left out the talk that they had in the classroom, feeling that it was too personal to tell.

Ororo put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm very happy for you," she said to Mneme.

"That's, like, so much better than being asked to go out for a cheeseburger," Kitty said, imagining the whole thing. But Jean looked slightly perturbed.

"Who was it? You never mentioned his name," she pointed out, wanting to know if it was Pietro.

"Pietro Maximoff," she answered shamelessly, knowing that Jean was dreading it. Jean looked at her feet, deciding not to interfere with her love life.

"..." Kitty said, grinning. Mneme again smiled guiltily.

"We'd better let her be," Storm said. "Remember, we've had a rough time these last few days, that's the only reason training has been let up. It resumes tomorrow, so be ready." Kitty sighed in despair. "We're all going to the pool later, though, so I'll be expecting you three to be dressed and ready for swimming." Ororo got up and left, followed by Jean and Kitty after a short congratulations. Mneme lied on her bed after they left, playing the scene over and over in her head.

Jean walked down the hall next to Kitty, thinking about Mneme and Pietro...together. It didn't seem possible a boasting boy who always was looking for a challenge paired with the girl who was never loved and contained more power imaginable. It just didn't make sense--and he could be just doing it for his boss. If he broke Mneme's heart, she would never let him live it down. In fact, she probably wouldn't let him live at all. It would be Rogue and Gambit all over again; only there would be some murdering. But then again, Mneme and Pietro were just like Kitty and Lance, the bad boy and the good girl. It seemed impossible, so why were complete opposites attracted to each other? Which got her thinking, what about Kurt? It's obvious he likes Kitty, but she doesn't even give him a chance. They would make a cute pair, Jean thought. But of course, teen girls had to make things complicated by wanting someone on the opposite team. Perhaps it was the drastic measures they took to be with the girl, making her feel like she was his everything. Or maybe it was because they were just rebelling and wanted to do things against the rules. Jean groaned silently. _Why can't they just be more like me and be with someone who actually believes in the same goals, like preventing evil?_ She doubted it would ever happen, but she could hope.

Mneme didn't have a bathing suit, but she could easily conjure one. Mneme stood in front of the mirror, wondering what would look good on her. Since black and teal seemed to be her ideal colors, she conjured up a two-piece. It had a beach sport top with a low-rise moderate bottom, and the design was black with a teal sheen. Using her powers, she split her clothes and bathing suit and switched them so she was now wearing her swimwear. It wasn't too revealing and it complimented her curves and muscles alike. She looked out her window to see the others gathering around the pool. She smiled, ready to have some fun, so she teleported about fifty feet above it and fell downward in a cannonball, waiting for the plunge.


	11. Chapter Eleven

_Okay, there's nothing romantic in this part._

_Sorry that I'm not good with fighting scenes. I try._

_Just a little something to get to the good part of the story. I hope you like it!_

_I'll definately have the characters more invovled next time. Mneme just keeps teleporting them to other places..._

_No, I'm not going to change the genre to romance. Friends and family sounds better. ^^_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Eleven**

Mneme hit the water, sinking to the bottom and making a monster sized ripple that sent a Kurt out of the pool and into the grass. He laughed and jumped back in with a splash very small compared to Mneme's. "She puts you boys to shame," Kitty said, her arms propped up behind her on the concrete. Jean sat by her, slowly kicking her feet in the water. Storm and Xavier sat on the other side, watching the students play. It seemed that Beast and Logan didn't want to join in on the fun.

"Too bad Rogue still has detention," Evan said with pity.

"It's not like she could have that much fun anyvay," Kurt reminded, referring to how she had to wear a wetsuit just to make sure nobody touched her skin. Mneme sat on the bottom with her legs hugged to her chest, listening to everyone, their voices perfectly clear. She flicked her wrist and the first collar appeared in her hand, the first step to her plan.

Rogue sighed and looked at the gigantic stack of dishes she still had left, all because she fell asleep in class. It was ridiculous! She had been cleaning for two hours and she still wasn't halfway done. What was worse was that spaghetti sauce was caked on every one, so she had to use extra elbow grease just to clean them. She put her elbow down on the counter and tried to imagine what everyone else was doing. Relaxing, doing homework, telling jokes...

_Playing in the pool, _a voice said in her head. She jumped and looked around.

"Who said that?" Rogue said aggressively, spinning around and ready to attack.

_It's Mneme. We're all at the pool having fun._

"Thanks for rubbing it in," she said sarcastically, leaning backwards on her elbows, resting them on the edge of the sink.

_You'll be there in a minute. Just let me finish those dishes for you._ Mneme said to her telepathically. Rogue jumped up and looked at the trays behind her. All of them were cleaned, sparkling in the fluorescent kitchen light.

Rogue gasped. "You'd you do that so fast?" she asked in her Southern accent. But before she knew it, she was at the bottom of a pool, Mneme in front of her. She was holding a metal device--her old collar. Mneme snapped her fingers, which was surprisingly loud underwater. Instantly Rogue was wearing a black tankini. She looked at herself. "This looks good--wait, I can breathe down here?!" she exclaimed, putting her hands around her throat and watching the bubbles come out of her mouth and nose.

"For now." Mneme told her, clipping the collar around Rogue's neck. "This will make it so your powers won't work. It'll be okay if you accidentally bump into someone or something." Rogue raised an eyebrow as the key from Mneme's wrist was handed to her. "I don't need it, so if you need to take it off you can unlock it." Rogue put the key on her wrist, unsure of how to thank her.

"Now what?"

Mneme shrugged. "Go have fun. You have about five seconds before you need to breath regularly again." Rogue stiffened, but kicked off the bottom and her head broke the surface of the water, gasping for air.

"Rogue?" Scott said. "What are you doing here?"

"Having fun," she answered bluntly.

"Vhy are you vearing Mneme's collar?" Kurt said, pointing to her neck. Rogue reached out to him. "No, no--don't touch me--" Rogue held one finger on his forehead, but nothing happened. "Oh--your powers don't work now!" he said, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. Everyone figured that is was all Mneme's doing, so they all settled down and continued messing around. Evan splashed Rogue and Kurt, then dived down to evade their attack. Mneme looked at him, leaning against the wall. She waved with a smile, and he waved back, then going back to the surface.

"C'mon, Jean. Come in the pool!" Scott pleaded to her, hanging on the edge next to her. "Everyone else is. Please."

Jean sighed. "I'm not in the mood for swimming." she said to him. He tickled her feet, making her flail and laugh hysterically. "Stop it! Stop! Scott Summers," she managed, "if you don't stop right now I'll--" He stopped and she looked down at his pouting face. "That stopped working in ninth grade," she said to him, looking away. But she couldn't resist when he stuck out his lower lip even farther. "_Fine_," she gave in, scooting into the pool. Kitty laughed at Jean and sighed. If only Lance were as sweet as that, instead of trying to force her into a relationship.

"Kitty!" Kurt called, interrupting her thoughts. He teleported over to her, even though she was only about ten feet away. "Vant me to get you a burger? Wolverine is coming out to grill--"

"NO!" she bellowed, tired of Kurt always asking her if she wanted a burger. "We're just friends, Kurt. We'll _never_ be together."

"So...friends can't get each other burgers?" he asked her, slightly confused. Kitty rolled her eyes. "Vhat about drinks? Do you vant a soda?"

"Kurt, listen," Kitty said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I like someone else. Not you. Why don't you find a girl who likes you?"

"But Rogue is my sibling. I can't date her--you mean Mneme?" Kurt asked her. "Vhy?"

Kitty shook her head quickly. "Not Mneme! She already has a guy. Why don't you find a Human girlfriend--one that knows how to keep a secret and isn't scared of your blue form. Like..." Kitty thought for a moment, wondering if there was such a girl. "I don't know. Just someone besides me." And with that, Kitty closed her eyes and continued to relax. Kurt sighed--What was wrong with him? Why didn't Kitty like him?

Mneme watched from the other wall of the pool, feeling bad for Kurt. She stretched her arm through the water and grabbed a hold of his ankle, pulling him over to him. She put a bubble around his head so he could breathe, but he still looked stunned. "Mneme?" he said, his voice slightly muffled. He furrowed his brow miserably. "You heard all of that?"

"Yes." Mneme answered, but saw the sad look on his face and added, "But all hope isn't lost!"

"How? Kitty doesn't like me, she like's that...Lance..." he said with envy. "Vhy doesn't she like me? Can you tell me vhat's wrong vith me?" Mneme was taken aback. He thought that he had to change for Kitty to like him. She laughed at the thought! "Vhat's so funny?!" he demanded, his cheeks getting a hint of pink under the fur.

"There's nothing wrong with you. She'll see someday that she really has liked you all along," Mneme told him with a smile.

Kurt was bewildered. "How?"

Mneme's face fell. She knew that if she told Kurt that she could see into the future, he'd tell everyone and they'd want to know about their future. But she couldn't lie to him, or deny such an eager face. "Well, I can see into the future, people's past, and even go through time--which I don't do because I don't like changing things. NEVER change what happens in the past. Even a single breath could change everything--"

"Okay, vhy are you telling me this? I can't go through time!" Kurt said to her, anxious to hear what might happen to him and Kitty.

"Oh. Right. Well..." Mneme closed her eyes and focused on Kurt's life. She saw what the future held for him, and it seemed to be good. He was with another girl named Amanda. He would take Kitty's advice and find the Human girl who accepted him and wasn't afraid. She sensed a great jealousy from Kitty. When Mneme opened her eyes, Kurt was eagerly waiting. "Taking Kitty's advice, you'll find a Human girlfriend. Kitty is going to be extremely jealous when you start dating Amanda." Kurt seemed happy--a little _too_ happy, as if he outwitted Kitty already. So Mneme added, "But my visions aren't always correct--people change their minds all the time. That could result into your future being different."

Kurt took Mneme's hand and shook it vigorously. "Thank you so much, Mneme! I owe you one!" He started to swim away, but then turned around to ask, "Kitty said you have a guy. Who is it?"

Mneme forced her face not to turn red. "Pietro Maximoff." she admitted, not embarrassed, just full of butterflies at the thought of him. Kurt looked surprised at her choice of a man, but gave her a thumbs up and a smile anyway. Then he swam back up, the bubble popping once he reached the air.

He swam over to the edge of the pool and got out, walking over to where Evan was drinking a can of soda. He elbowed him. "Which do you vant to know: Who Mneme is dating or who Quicksilver is dating?" he asked him. Evan shrugged, not really caring about either's love life. "They're dating each other!" Kurt laughed. Evan spit out his drink, nearly choking. "Yeah, who vould have thought?" Kurt said, clapping Evan on the back, then diving back into the pool.

_An X-Men dating PIETRO? _Evan thought in disbelief and a slight fury. His archenemy, dating Mneme. He didn't like the sound of that.

"Come and get it!" Wolverine called out in his gruff voice, making it sound more like an order than a suggestion. He started to walk back inside, but stopped and sniffed the air.

Mneme surfaced and jumped onto the concrete nimbly. She looked around, searching for something. Everyone in the pool saw Mneme's concern and stopped what they were doing, wondering what was wrong. "Sabretooth," Mneme and Wolverine said in unison, getting ready to fight. Mneme snapped her fingers and everyone disappeared to their rooms in a flash of light. Wolverine was focused on the forest, but soon turned around at the sound of a motorcycle. Mneme jumped across the pool and stood in a ready stance next to Logan, who was also ready to fight.

"Get outta here, kid. This is my fight," he said, sharp blades protruding and elongating from between his knuckles.

Mneme tilted her head to one side, confused. "Are you sure?" she asked him, but teleported to her room before he could answer. Wolverine didn't say anything unless he meant it. Mneme watched out of her window, a clear view of what was happening. Sabretooth, after somehow getting through the mansion's defenses, brought his motorcycle skidding across the yard and towards Wolverine, tearing up the grass. Mneme, careful not to interfere with their fight, looked at the torn grass and made new grass grow back quickly in its place. Then her view drifted back to the fight. Logan had easily jumped aside before the motorcycle could hit him. Sabretooth skidded to a stop where Wolverine had been standing only seconds ago. He dismounted the bike and growled menacingly, flexing his black-nailed fingers. Mneme zoomed in to look at his fingernails. They were claw-like, she saw, then returned her vision to normal to watch the fighting scene. She waved a hand to make the wind blow, adding drama to the scene. She laughed silently to herself, feeling like a movie director or something.

"Well, well, well," Sabretooth started, examining his nails. "Look what the cat dragged in." Mneme saw a hawk overhead and took control of its mind, seeing from its eyes. She made it land in a nearby tree so she could see the fight better. Sabretooth was looking at Logan with a hate that Mneme was quite familiar with. His hair blew wildly in the wind.

"Listen, bub. Enough of your talk. I don't have time for your stupidity." Logan said to him, angry growing with the seconds that passed. Sabretooth laughed, something that sounded quite disturbing. "Are you going to start what you came here for, or do I have to kick your ass in the beginning of this fight?"

Sabretooth chuckled. "What I came here for, huh? Well, then you can start off by telling me where the girl is," he said to Logan with a toothy grin.

"What girl?" Wolverine growled, getting tired of Sabretooth's games.

Sabretooth answered, "The powerful one. _Mneme_." Wolverine gave a low growl and bolted forward, taking a slice at him. Sabretooth tried to dodge but took a nasty cut on his shoulder. He snarled at Wolverine, scratching his forearm. It quickly healed itself, but Mneme didn't see any after that. She had given the bird back its control of mind and backed away from the window.

_Why...me?_ she thought to herself. Then she ran back to the window and looked inside Sabretooth's mind, figuring out why he was after her. "He's working for Magneto?" Mneme shook her head and tightened her fists in frustration. Somehow Sabretooth had built a very strong ability to block her from reading his mind.... She couldn't find any other information. Perhaps it was because she wasn't close enough.

Sabretooth was pinned by Logan, but kicked him off before his enemy could stab him. Sabretooth jumped up, now standing by the grill. He grinned and picked up a steak knife in each hand. He ran at Wolverine, trying to stab him. Logan countered each move, sparks flying from the grinding metal. Mneme jumped from the window, landing on the ground smoothly. Wolverine looked up, Sabretooth's chance to strike. "I told you to stay out of this!" he yelled at Mneme, glancing at Sabretooth just in time to duck before getting stabbed in the head. Logan punched Sabretooth in the gut to get him to back off. He stood doubled over and looked over at Mneme.

"I heard him. This is my fight, Wolverine," she said to him. "He'll be an easy target." Mneme snapped her fingers and Wolverine was teleported to the other side of the city, far away enough to where it would give her enough time to uncover information. She turned toward him. "So...Victor," she started, trying to read his mind now that she was closer, but she couldn't see any additional information. "You wanted to know where I was, and here I am." Mneme furrowed her brow and stood tall, waiting for Sabretooth to attack, but he never did.

Instead, he crossed his arms and said, "We can do this the easy way, where you agree to come with me, or we can do this the hard way, where I have to force you to come. What'll it be?" Mneme laughed icily.

"You honestly think you can take me? Magneto was a fool for sending you in the first place!" Mneme glowered at him but kept a sharp smile. "Are you telling me to come with you so you can try to kill me in a secluded area, or are you telling me that so you can bring me to Magneto?"

Sabretooth grinned. "You're a smart girl, I'll give you that. But if I wanted to kill you, I'd do right here and now." Mneme scoffed.

"I'm too powerful. You wouldn't be able to lay a claw on me," she said to him.

"We'll see about that."


	12. Chapter Twelve

_Yay! Another update!_

_I've been updating like mad..._

_Well, Pietro is in here a little bit.... He'll be in the next chapter a lot more._

_If you're wondering, I haven't forgotten about Mneme's training. It's just Wednesday in this story took up four chapters..._

_One fighting scene, lots of dialogue, and a ton of words. Enjoy Chapter Twelve!_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Twelve**

Mneme sighed. "I'll take it easy on you. I'll only use my powers to equal you," she said to him. _Which means giving most of them up..._ Mneme added silently.

"Too easy!" Sabretooth said with an evil, sharp smile. He tossed the knives aside and bounded forward, on all fours like a bulky tiger. Mneme studied him and grew claws of her own, along with long sharp canine teeth. She didn't grow the fur though.... She felt that it was slightly overdoing it. Sabretooth jumped at her, claws outstretched and ready to slice. Mneme purposely fell on her back and held her feet up, then lunged him across the yard with a powerful kick. Jumping up, she ran at him, taking advantage of the time he used to recuperate. Mneme jumped at him, colliding into his broad chest and then pinning him to the ground. Holding his forearms down, she dug her claws into them.

She said to him, "Do you still think you can beat me?" A hint of laughter was in her voice, and Sabretooth didn't like it. He spit at her face, but she tilted her head to avoid it. Mneme jumped back and let him stand, watching the blood ooze from the ten holes in his arms. He growled at her, a deep menacing sound. "I don't want to hurt you," she said truthfully. "I just want to be left alone." He didn't reply, seeming to be thinking about what she just said. Mneme furrowed her brow, aggravated that she couldn't read what he thinking.

"That's exactly what I said when I was a kid," he said to her. "You bring back memories." Mneme's face looked relieved.

"So you'll leave me be?" she asked him.

"I hate those memories." Sabretooth growled at her. Mneme's face fell, but she quickly recovered.

"Well, I guess you'll have to take your beating like a man," she said with a smirk. Sabretooth ran at her, claws digging up the ground. Like a cat, Mneme bounded away from him with a laugh. She zigzagged toward the mansion, Sabretooth on her heels. He thought he was going to have her pinned against the wall, but she clawed her way up and jumped off, flipping herself behind him with incredible accuracy. Before he could even turn around she had jumped up and kicked him in the side of the head. He flew sideways and into the tree that Mneme had made the hawk land in before. Sabretooth hit the ground, leaving a big indent in the tree's trunk. He rubbed his head, slightly dizzy, then got up and looked at her with a vengeance.

Sabretooth snarled, "You're strong--stronger than me. Not a woman of your word, are you?"

"I said I would fight to your equal, and I am!" Mneme protested. "Brute strength, claws and teeth against brute strength, claws, and teeth. Only my brute strength is, well, more powerful than yours." she said with a shrug. "It's not my fault." He yelled in frustration, lunging at her once more. She ducked under him and headed for the tree. She spun around next to it, seeing Sabretooth standing next to the pool thirty feet away. Then she had an idea. Wrapping her arms around the trunk as far as she could, Mneme ripped the tree out by its roots and swung it like a baseball bat. Sabretooth's eyes widened in shock, his only reaction to a tree flying at him at a hundred miles an hour. He was slammed into the air, flying over the trees and fading from sight. By that time the X-Men were coming out of the mansion. "It took you guys long enough," Mneme said as she put the tree back in the ground. She put her hand over the roots and the dug themselves into the ground.

"You paralyzed me!" Evan said. "How am I supposed to move when I'm paralyzed?!"

"And you chained me to the wall!"

"Why'd you, like, stick me halfway through a wall and make my powers so I couldn't use them?" Everyone started bickering about how Mneme made it so they were trapped inside. That is, until Xavier spoke.

"She only did it to protect us," he pointed out. "She didn't know much about Sabretooth and wasn't sure how capable he was. For all she knew, he was as powerful as her." The others took this into consideration, easily forgiving Mneme for what she did. "Now that she knows more about him, she won't do it next time, _will she_?" he asked her. Mneme shook her head. "Good. I take it Wolverine went after him?"

Mneme shook her head again. She snapped her fingers and Logan appeared, drenched with a few leeches on his arms. He pulled them off and threw them on the ground before advancing toward Mneme. "If you _ever_ do that again, I'll--" Mneme looked at him challenging, knowing that he wouldn't ever be able to attack her. "Don't _ever_ do that again!" he said, deciding to change his words.

Xavier nodded, approving of her choice of where to send him. "In the river at the edge of the city. Good choice. Only take into consideration that he may sink because of his metal structure." Mneme nodded. Wolverine looked at her through narrowed eyes.

"At least Sabretooth didn't pound you into the ground," he said. "What'd he want _you_ for?"

Everyone looked at her expectantly. "I'm pretty sure he was here to bring me to Magneto, but I'm not quite sure--I couldn't read his mind. That's what he made it sound like, though." Mneme looked at their inquisitive faces. "Magneto wants me to join him," she said with a shrug. "He told me himself."

"And you didn't tell us?!" Storm said in shock. "When?!"

"Last night, around midnight." Mneme said to them. "What's the big deal? I won't join him. I know that he's just going to use me. You don't have to tell me--I can figure that out! I'm not stupid!" Mneme said angrily.

"We don't think you're stupid," Scott said, slightly confused.

"We're just worried about you." Jean enlightened. Mneme sighed. She looked down shamefully.

"I know. I just don't want you to be. You can be sure that I'll always be a part of the X-Men," she assured them.

Pietro sat in the field where he had picked the flowers for Mneme, wishing that she were there. The day had gone so perfectly well nothing could ruin it. He flopped down on the grass and took a deep breath, inhaling the fragrance of roses and carnations. They were a good combination, just as Mneme had said.

"Quicksilver, you seemed pleased with yourself," a familiar voice said—unwelcome to Pietro's senses right now. He sat up and looked behind him to see Magneto. He did his best not to scowl.

"What is it?"

"I assume you have more information on the girl?" Magneto said to him. Pietro felt a rage inside him—"the girl"? How dare he talk about Mneme like that!

Pietro lay back down. "Yeah. She said she'd never join you. She likes being a part of the X-Men and that'll never change," he told Magneto, who didn't seem moved.

"I suspected that. I'm sending all my followers to attack her. You'll be up last, after Mastermind." he said to him. Pietro couldn't believe his ears; did Magneto honestly think that anyone could beat Mneme?

"Alright," he agreed. It would be good practice for Mneme, and of course when it was his time to attack her, he wouldn't. He almost laughed at Magneto's ridiculous plan. No one could kill Mneme; she had practically every power there was! Pietro put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. _Everything is going to be just fine…_he thought before drifting off to sleep.

Mneme and the others sat at the large dining table and started filling their plates—well, they did at least. Mneme just talked with the others while sitting at the table. When Evan asked about the fight, Mneme made a holographic copy of Sabretooth and reenacted the whole fight, even using a hologram of the tree. Everyone enjoyed it, clapping at the end while Mneme took a short bow. She took her seat right before Evan spoke up, "Kurt told me that you can see into the future, so is it true?" Mneme nodded. "Aw, man!" he said in amazement.

"Can you, like, see into my future?" Kitty asked her.

"Of course," Mneme answered, knowing that Kitty wanted to see where her relationship with Lance was going to go. Closing her eyes, Mneme focused on Kitty only. She saw a report card with an A+ in every category, even gym now. Mneme sped things up a bit, knowing that she wasn't looking far enough in the future to tell about Lance. She saw Kitty next to Kurt, then they started holding hands and moved in for a kiss… Mneme opened her eyes. "My predictions aren't always right—people change their minds sometimes, so the future can change," she explained to everyone, then continued for Kitty, "You'll get a very good report card and get over Lance." Mneme didn't want to tell her about the kiss because Kitty would be sure to distance herself from Kurt if she did…. At the news, her jaw dropped, in disbelief.

_Yes!_ Jean thought to herself, filled with joy at the thought of Kurt having a chance.

"But…I don't want to get over Lance," Kitty protested sadly. Mneme shrugged; she didn't make the future, she just predicted it.

"What about me?" Evan spoke up. Mneme closed her eyes and he waited, anticipating what she saw. When her eyes opened, she didn't look happy, so Evan's smile faded. "What?"

Mneme told him through telepathy, knowing that he wouldn't want the others to hear. _You won't be able to keep your powers under control, then you'll go down to the sewers to join the Morlocks._ she said to him. He looked confused and sad, not liking what he heard. Mneme looked around at the curious faces, but she wasn't going to tell them.

"I'm going to join the Morlocks," he told everyone to break the silence, "because I won't be able to keep my powers under control."

Rogue looked the most sympathetic, but suggested, "Maybe we can get you a collar, like Mneme's or mine." She looked at Beast hopefully, who nodded.

"That's a great idea," he said. "I'll have to get some new materials, though, so it might take a while," he told them.

"Good thinking, Rogue," Xavier complimented. "What do you see in your future, Mneme?" he asked her.

"I don't like looking in my future." she admitted. "Everything's already so predictable, I don't want to make things even less exciting," Mneme explained to them all.

Kurt looked confused. "But don't you ever get curious?"

"No." Mneme said to him.

After dinner, everyone went about doing their regular business. Mneme stood in her room, looking out the window. "Come in!" she called before Rogue knocked on the door. She entered, closing the door behind her.

"I heard you were goin' out with that Pietro," she said to Mneme, a slight grin on her face. Mneme nodded, holding back a blush. "He's really changed you. You're a lot different now, you're not some robot anymore." Mneme laughed at her choice of words.

"I guess not."

Rogue looked down into the waters of the pool. "I felt exactly like that when I met Remy." Her face still held a smile, but her eyes were sad. "Things just didn't work out between us, I guess." She sighed. "I thought things were going so good, too." Mneme looked at her sympathetically. "I started having bad dreams about us. I remember one time I kept running toward him, but the harder I ran, the farther he got. I woke up all sweaty and nervous." Rogue shook her head. "But I need to stop livin' in the past. You gotta move on, y'know?" Mneme nodded, even though she didn't really understand at all. How could everything between two people suddenly go bad? Mneme thought to herself, realizing that it was just like how Pietro and her came together. Both girls sighed in despair, leaning on the windowsill. "Well, I'd better get to bed. We've got trainin' and stuff, tomorrow. G'night." Rogue said as she walked out the door. Once she had left, Mneme could sense a tension in the air between the ones who were still awake…her teachers. Floors below her, they were in the conference room. Mneme listened intently to hear what they were saying.

"…I have a bad feeling about Mneme is having a relationship with one of Magneto's followers." Professor Xavier stated. She was shocked at the news, but continued to listen.

"They hit it off pretty fast; he must've pulled the wool over her eyes, or something," Logan agreed. "There's no way she'd fall for a punk like him unless he buttered her up."

"I don't feel comfortable talking about this without her here," Storm said. "Why don't we talk to her about it?"

"Mneme is new to this whole world—and it's new to her. Perhaps she doesn't know any better." Beast was saying. "She may not like him at all."

"I saw the way she speaks about him, and I heard how much he cares for her." Ororo protested. "She may be new, but she knows who she loves and who are her enemies."

"This is going to be hard for her—Pietro is both for her now. Sooner or later she'll have to choose sides," Xavier said. Mneme frowned at the thought—she would have to choose between her friends and her lover?

"Maybe she won't have to. He might just be doing that on Magneto's orders." Wolverine pointed out. Storm huffed.

"Why can't you just be happy for her?! Haven't you seen how much she's changed? Do you want her to go back to being an emotionless girl again?!"

"Storm, we're just trying to make sure she doesn't end up in the wrong hands—or hurt." Xavier tried to remind her. "Would you rather have her heartbroken and emotionless or unknowing and emotionless?"

"You don't know that! He could truly love her!" Storm said, for once loosing her calm tone. "What about when he saved her from those thugs?" she pointed out angrily. Xavier sighed.

"I'll find out more information on him and how he feels about her. But come Monday, if there are _any_ suspicious signs that I see, we'll have to end the two of them being together." Mneme stopped listening after that, heart pounding and eyes filled with tears.

Mneme launched herself off the windowsill and flew through the air like a missile towards the tree. Stretching her arms out in front of her, she caught onto a branch and swung up and around, her feet landing firmly on it. She sat with her back against the tree trunk, gazing off into the city lights. Tears dripped down her cheeks. If Pietro was working for Magneto, what were the chances that he really loved her? _Our love has to be true…it has to be…_


	13. Chapter Thirteen

_Yay! My thirteenth chapter!_

_Over 3,890 words! Longest chapter yet!_

_One fight scene at the end, Pietro is in it a lot. Sort of._

_This chapter is dedicated to my devoted readers such as bloodlushes, Azusa-Phonos, San child of the wolves, and (you're name here)._

_It's also dedicated to my devoted reviewers, Azusa-Phonos, San child of the wolves, and bloodlushes. You're name would be here if you reviewed..._

_And Kitty gets jealous! Amanda comes over next chapter... Will there be a Kitty-fight??? Sorry, that was lame._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Thirteen**

Pietro woke as the moon shone brightly down on his face. Yawning, he sat up and stretched. It was a beautiful night, full of stars and clusters of dark blue sky against the black. He looked around, expecting all the flowers to be closed, but there were flowers all around him blooming. The maroon roses and carnations were closed, but there were flowers all around that were open. The smell drifted all around him, even more pleasant than earlier. "She'll love these," Pietro decided as he examined the big white flowers and the tiny purple ones all around him. He picked a few carefully and lifted them to his nose. It was the most delightful thing he had ever smelled.

"And who might those be for?" Magneto said from behind Pietro, scaring him out of his wits. He gave a short yell nearly jumped off the ground.

Catching his breath he spat, "Do you have to interrupt me every time I'm enjoying something?" He didn't even turn to look at Magneto. "They're for no one. I just like the smell."

"Is that so?" His voice was so calm that is was nearly unnatural. "Then why did you say 'she'll love these'?" he asked.

"I dunno, I just woke up. My mind must be a little foggy." Pietro said with a shrug, but that didn't fool Magneto.

"You know what I said about making attachments." Magneto's words made Pietro stiffen. "Attachments are weaknesses, especially when it's to a living being." Pietro stood and furrowed his brow, glowering at Magneto.

"What are you getting at?" he demanded.

"Don't try and deny it, I can see right through you, Pietro." Magneto was now slightly angry, but so was Quicksilver.

"You don't know anything!" he yelled, taking a step forward with fury. Magneto grabbed his collar and lifted him off the ground.

"Don't play games with me! I know very well what you're doing, and I don't like it!" He threw Pietro to the ground and stood, looming over him.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Quicksilver denied, which resulted in Magneto kneeling down and grabbing Pietro's throat, pinning him down to the grassy earth.

"It's that girl and I know just as well as you do!" Magneto tightened his grip, choking Pietro. "I told you about attachments, and now I'll make you suffer for your weakness." His voice was a low hiss as crushed the teen boy's throat. Pietro pulled at Magneto's fingers, trying anything to loosen his grip so he could speak.

"_Wait_!" he managed to choke out. Narrowing his eyes, Magneto let go and stood up. Pietro rubbed his throat before he spoke. "I can get her to join." He coughed and Magneto waited for him to continue. "I can make her join—just give me some time."

Magneto thought it over quickly. "Very well. You have until Monday. If she doesn't join by then, she dies." He started walking away before adding, "And don't think I'll let up on the attacks."

"But—that'll just make it even harder!" Pietro argued.

"You heard me," Magneto said, still walking. He stopped and added, "Would you rather her die tomorrow?" Pietro settled back down in defeat, still clutching his throat.

"No," he said, feeling trapped without a choice. For some reason he thought that Mneme must feel the same way. He looked down at the flowers in his hand, crushed in his panic. What had he gotten himself into?

Blurred lights were all Mneme saw for the next few hours as she silently cried to herself. During the time she had actually been living, from the time she broke out of the glass cylinder in her parents' lab to where she sat at that very moment, she had cried so much. She was afraid to cry most of the time, but when she thought of her past, it was so hard for her not to cry. So much death had been caused because of her—by her. Now that she had found the one thing to calm her down, they were going to take it away from her? _Why are they doing this too me?_ she thought to herself. If he was working for Magneto, anything could indicate that it was all just a hoax—the flowers, the "muffin", and the way he looked at her like she was everything…. Was it all just a lie? It seemed like she was just going to have to give Pietro up now so it wouldn't hurt as much…. Even a few days could make a difference. Mneme felt trapped and without a choice. For some reason she thought that Pietro must felt the same way. She looked down at her hand, remembering how they had walked down the path together. What had she gotten herself into?

The morning sun rose hours later, blinding Mneme for a second. She wiped her eyes and remembered that school would be starting soon. Mneme conjured the carnation from her room and pinned it in her hair as Pietro did and teleported to the school grounds. Her heart sank lower and lower as she made her way to her locker, dreading what she had to tell Pietro…

When the morning sun rose over the treetops, Pietro let the sunlight warm his face for a moment. He had spent the rest of the night picking the odd flowers that bloomed at night. Now they started closing, the roses and carnations starting to open, dew glistening in the soft light. It shimmered all across the meadow, but he was already zooming over to Mneme's locker, dreading what he had to tell her…

As she walked down the hallway, Pietro came into view. He was holding a bunch of long grass—no, closed flowers. Her heartstrings were being pulled just at the sight, and she wanted to cry on the spot.

As he waited in front of the locker, Mneme came into view. She was wearing the carnation he had given her yesterday. His heart told him not to tell her, that it didn't have to be this way, but he knew it had to be that way.

"Good morning," Mneme greeted, smiling up at him. His gaze couldn't meet her sad eyes.

"I wouldn't exactly call it that." Pietro smiled down at her, his eyes also sad, but she was not looking at him anymore. She just looked down at her feet. He lifted her chin so she would look at him. "I knew something was wrong with you last night."

"And I could tell that you were having the same kind of night." Mneme took the flowers that were offered to her. "Moonflowers and evening-scented stock…. Thank you so much." Her eyes brimmed with tears but she blinked them back. "Xavier is going to study you more—so he can see why you're doing this. I know you love me for real—but he won't see it. I already know. I have until Monday before he'll tell me that I can't be with you anymore." Pietro didn't react.

"So similar to what Magneto said to me." he started. "I have until Monday to get you to join his side, but he won't be letting up on the attacks. He doesn't like me having an attachment. It's a weakness." Pietro's sad smile faded into a scowl. "If you don't join, he'll try to kill you. I have a feeling he knows something I don't."

Mneme sighed, looking at the red marks on his neck. "I knew he must've done that." Putting a hand on his neck, a light glowed faintly, healing where he had been choked. When she removed her hand, his neck was back to normal. "Pietro, I don't want it to end like this, but I'm going to have to forget about you. Xavier won't let me be with you, and I don't want it to hurt more than it needs to."

"Forget about me? No, you have to run!" he said to her urgently. "When Monday comes he'll have figured out some way to kill you and—"

"I can't run. I can't hide. I'm going to face him and I'll kill him. Then we can be together." Mneme tried to smile, but she couldn't. Pietro shook his head in disbelief.

"Don't do this…. If you want to kill him for us to be together, I'll run away with you. Don't face him. I know something bad will happen."

Mneme sighed. "I've made my decision. Nothing you do or say will change my mind." She gave him a small smirk. "Haven't you figured that out by now?"

"Yeah, I just wish it wasn't true. But it's part of what makes you yourself, so I've got to love it." He gently touched his fingertips to her cheek and Mneme closed her eyes to savor the moment. When he took his hand away and Mneme opened her eyes, he was gone. Mneme opened her locker, got her books, put the flowers away, and felt a single tear run down her face.

Mneme sat motionless throughout the first two classes, her mind churning different ideas, trying to figure out why Magneto thought he could beat her. Was he crazy? Mneme was the all-powerful being! Nothing could defeat her, not even a million Magnetos. She anticipated the wait for Monday, when she would fight him, though she had the urge to find him right then and finish him off. _It's Thursday, I should at least give him a chance to prepare._ she thought to herself nobly. Five days seemed a long time to be away from Pietro, but then she realized that if in the end she was going to kill Magneto, Pietro wouldn't have a leader, which meant she could be with him afterwards…so why shouldn't she be with him now? She laughed silently to herself. Of course! Xavier would tell her on Monday that she can't be with Pietro because of Magneto, but that would be okay since she would kill him a little later on in the day. But the thought of killing again slightly disturbed her—had she done it so many times that it seemed like nothing now? Mneme hadn't even tried to think of any other options… _He is an enemy to the X-Men—I'm sure I'd just be doing my job if I killed him._ she told herself with a slight smile. She wouldn't be doing anything wrong at all. Mneme was going to have to tell Pietro the good news.

After the next two classes, the bell rang for lunch break and Mneme quickly put her books away and headed to the cafeteria. When she entered, she saw people in line for lunch and people with lunchboxes at the tables. Scott was sitting at the usual table and Lance was sitting with Todd and Fred. But where was Pietro? Mneme concentrated on him, and saw that he was in a field full of roses and carnations and closed moonflowers. He didn't look happy at all, more of a sulking look. It made Mneme feel bad and want to comfort him, but she felt that he wanted to be alone to contemplate things. She walked over to Scott and sat down across from him.

"Hey," he said to her through a mouthful of peanut butter and banana. He swallowed before continuing, "You excited for your first day of training?"

Mneme laughed. "Of course. Anything to make things safer for me and everyone else." She touched the jewel dial on her collar. "I want to be able to fight without using this, able to control all my powers at once. Of course, I'd like to accomplish that by Monday—"

Scott nearly choked on his drink. Mneme raised a hand and pulled the soda out, letting it float in midair before moving it above the garbage can and dropping it. "Are you crazy? You won't be able to do that—it takes years just to master one power!" He lowered his voice. "And don't do that with the Humans around," he reminded, talking about how she used her powers to stop him from choking. Mneme rolled her eyes.

"But not everyone is like me—my powers make my brain able to learn things much faster than a regular Mutant. I just need some guidelines, that's all," she admitted. "Everyone needs a little help sometimes." Scott looked at her doubtfully, but continued to eat his peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich. "Aren't those for…little kids?"

"No!" he protested, trying to swallow the dry sandwich. "It was the only thing I knew how to make…" Mneme looked at him with concern; it was almost sad that he only knew how to make that kind of sandwich.

"Don't you know how to make a ham sandwich or bologna or something else?"

"Well, yes, but I couldn't get the mayonnaise jar open this morning—"

"It's a squeeze bottle, though."

Scott's face turned red and he continued to eat his sandwich. _That's why the top wouldn't screw off…_ he thought to himself. Mneme couldn't believe what he was thinking. That was absolutely preposterous how childish he was on the inside. Jean came over with a tray full of…_something_. What is was, Mneme couldn't tell from sight or smell. She raised her eyebrows.

"What is _that_?" she asked, looking at the disgusting mush. Some type of uncooked patty sat in a puddle of yellow goo that resembled snot. Kitty and Rogue came up next, each holding a tray full of whatever the lunch ladies were trying to pass as food. They sat down on either side of Mneme, looking at their food with dejection and rejection.

Jean took her fork and moved the mush around. "It's _supposed_ to be Salisbury steak." She tried to pick up the patty, but it simply fell off like ground hamburger. The girls looked at it, wondering what on earth it was made of.

"That ain't right."

"They, like, shouldn't be able to serve this at _any_ school."

"Don't eat it." Mneme said to them, though they had no intention to in the first place. "They scraped the meat off the factory floor and the 'gravy' is four years old." The girls pushed their trays away as quickly as they could, afraid to find out what exactly else might be wrong with it. Scott looked at the girls with sympathy before Kurt and Evan showed up. For some reason Kurt was carrying two trays and Evan didn't have one at all. They sat down and Kurt started shoving spoonful after spoonful of the stuff into his mouth.

"This is delicious!" he said, accidentally spitting chunks of mush all over the table. "You Americans really know how to live!" Everyone's eyes widened with sickened awe. "Are you going to eat that?" he asked the three girls, indicating to their trays. They shook their heads and Kurt took them and started eating more.

"I think I'm going to be sick…" Kitty said, covering her mouth as her face turned green. Mneme simply looked at her to calm her stomach, and she averted her gaze before she started to puke again.

Rogue started shaking her head. "I _can_'_t_ be related to him." A loud burp emitted from Kurt, drifting through the air and making the X-Men students hold their noses. Nightcrawler lay back in his seat and patted his belly.

"That vas yummy." He looked at everyone's bewildered faces. "Vhat?"

"Oh, Kurt!" a voice rang across the lunchroom. A girl was waving at him shyly before she came over and stood next to him. He stood up and embraced her, accidentally burping in her ear. She giggled and blushed when his cheeks turned red. "Hey, guys," she said to the group.

Jean said, "Nice of you to join us, Amanda. How are you?"

"I'm doing great ever since Kurt asked me back out!" she said with joy. Everyone cast each other sideways glances.

"_Asked you out_?" Kitty said slowly, as if she didn't hear right. Amanda nodded and Kitty's face turned red with anger.

Amanda hugged Kurt tightly, who cuddled her back just as strongly. "I'll be coming over tonight to have dinner with your family," she explained to the X-Men. Kitty looked so mad that her eyes could have been burning straight through Amanda's soul. Mneme's prediction had been right so far, so she chuckled quietly to herself. For a girl who acted like Kurt was an annoying little brother, she sure did get jealous.

"Sit down, Amanda," Kurt offered his seat to her, pushing her chair in. She plugged her nose as the smell from the stacked trays overwhelmed her. "Oh—sorry." He quickly put the trays up on the counter, teleporting there and back in a jiffy. With every movement Kitty's face turned even more furious until she looked like a tomato. The others couldn't help but to silently giggle to themselves. That is, until Mneme looked around, searching for whatever was causing a disturbance in the atmosphere. She stood up and looked over at the door. "Is something wrong?"

Mneme was silent for a few more seconds before turning the table on its side and sending the group behind it with a sweep of her arm. Everyone in the lunchroom looked at her in alarm, wondering why she just did that. Suddenly she stiffened. "Everyone, get into the kitchens!" Unsure whether to take her seriously or not, they just sat there and stared. With an angry grunt, Mneme snapped her fingers and sent them away to the gym, leaving just the X-Men and Amanda. Suddenly the whole wall where the door was exploded, sending debris all over the place. Mneme braced herself against it, and if it weren't for the table, the X-Men would have had a large chance of someone being hurt. A silhouette came through the smoke.

Rogue looked over the table, not believing her eyes. "Remy?" she said quietly.

"I need you to keep the students under control and in the gym—I can handle this." She snapped her fingers and they disappeared. Mneme faced Gambit and flexed her fingers. "So you're Remy LeBeau." He came out of the smoke and dust, hair unruly and wildly blowing from the explosion.

"So you've heard of me," he said in his heavy Cajun accent.

Mneme looked at him indifferently and narrowed her eyes. "You've come because of Magneto. Didn't you here about Sabretooth? I'll flatten you and toss you aside, just as I did to him." He chuckled.

"I'm far more skilled than him," he said with a twisted grin. In a split second he threw a charged card at Mneme, who did a simple backflip to evade it.

"Is that all you've got?"

"Don't get cocky just yet!" He threw four more charged cards at her, but she used a gust of wind to send them straight back at him. Gambit leaned slightly to the left to avoid them.

_He's better than I would have expected…_ Mneme thought to herself. _A reasonable challenge._ She grinned and produced four knife blades without the hilts. She jumped up about twenty feet in the air and sent them speeding toward him. He jumped aside and threw a card where Mneme was going to land. She teleported over to the other side of the room so she wouldn't land on it. _He is more experienced than Sabretooth…_ Gambit charged a piece of rubble next to her, making it explode a split second after she jumped away. Remy kept charging the debris around her, Mneme only escaping in the nick of time to find that she was pratically standing right on another thing about to explode. She jumped to the ceiling and clung to it with her hands and feet, creating a forcefield around herself. Knowing that Gambit wouldn't be able to attack her while she was in it, she felt safer and more relaxed. That is, until her hands started burning up. She looked at the ceiling tile that she was holding on to and saw that it was glowing, and since it was inside the force field, she had no protection. But Mneme was a quick reactor and absorbed the power that was charging the tile. Mneme let the forcefield dissolve and she fell to the floor, her hands glowing with the energy she had absorbed. She ran at him, but he was ready for hand-to-hand combat. Mneme punched at him, but he dodged the first one. With a counter strike he punched at her, but she easily dodged. Slightly surprised by her speed, he took another punch. After evading those, Mneme grabbed his shoulder and flipped herself over and behind him. In midair she twisted herself around and landed facing him. Before Gambit could turn around, Mneme punched his back, the energy literally exploding and sending him across the cafeteria. He hit the wall and landed on his back. Mneme looked over at the wall that had been obliterated (where the door used to be) and saw Rogue running up to him. She unlocked her collar and crouched next to him.

"Rogue," he said with a smile, trying to sit up. She took off her glove and touched her hand to his face affectionately, but still taking away his power. He was soon unconscious and lied on the floor. Rogue put her glove back on and clipped the collar around her neck.

"I just wanted to make sure you didn't kill 'im." Rogue said nervously with a little laugh. He'll be alright—it's not the first time I've taken his powers." Mneme nodded with a smile. "I hope you don't mind that I don't want you to kill him."

"I wasn't planning too. It's good to know how well your enemy fights so you can always have another battle." Mneme shook her hands and the glow dissipated into the air. "I understand how you feel." She snapped her fingers and Gambit disappeared to the outskirts of the city—not in the river though. "He won't be back. But Magneto won't give him as much money than he would've gotten in he captured me," Mneme laughed. Rogue walked over to Mneme.

"But what about all the damage he caused?" she asked. Mneme looked all around them at the broken walls and burn marks, upturned tables and the mushy food caked on surfaces. With a swipe of her hand, the soot was removed, tables returning back to their original state, food floating over to the garbage, and bricks reforming the wall. In a short time the place was returned to normal, Rogue looking at Mneme's handiwork in wonder. "You really can do anything, can't you?"

"That's nothing," Mneme said with a shrug. "Now we have to go clear the memory of all those Human kids."


	14. Chapter Fourteen

_Chapter Fourteen._

_Training session! Yay!_

_Sorry for the late update. I had to go for a couple days to get spacers._

_School is coming up, so I'll be updating a lot less while the school year is going._

_Anyway, thanks for reading this far! I hope to get more readers and reviewers soon..._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Fourteen**

After school, Mneme decided to take the bus home for the first time in her life. Once she found the correct bus, she sat down in a seat that was around the middle of the bus. As soon as she sat down, she felt something pull on her hair. Reaching behind her she felt something stretchy and sticky—gum. "Ugh." She wrapped her hand around the stretched out gum and it disappeared into thin air. Evan, Kitty, Kurt, Rogue, and Amanda walked onto the bus. Kitty still looked pretty upset over everything that had to do with Amanda and Kurt. She plopped down irritably next to Mneme and propped her knees up on the seat in front of them, which Rogue and Evan ended up sitting in. Kurt and Amanda sat in the seat across the isle from Mneme and Kitty, and they cuddled against each other. Kitty quickly snapped her head away from the scene and looked out the window. Mneme chuckled to herself quietly and leaned her head against the window as the bus driver started the engine.

As the bus pulled out of the bus ramp, followed by many other buses, Mneme watched the scenery go by in a blur. The bus ride was very boring, quiet, and not fun. She would have fallen asleep if not for her powers and Kitty continuously shifting in her seat irately at the sight of Kurt and Amanda. Needless to say, it seemed like a long ride to the institute after Kitty's anger didn't seem funny.

Once Mneme stepped off the bus, she teleported herself into the mansion, where the teachers, Scott, and Jean were waiting. When the others walked in through the doors, they were instantly reminded of the training that they had to do. Kurt immediately teleported to the kitchen refrigerator and Kitty slipped through the floor, trying to get out of training. "Kurt… Kitty…" the Professor said. Kurt popped back with two doughnuts and handed one to Amanda. Kitty came through the floor just in time to see it, then immediately went back down. Mneme put out a hand and pulled her up with telepathy.

"Hey!" Kitty shouted angrily, trying to break free of Mneme's invisible grasp. She dropped her to the floor and listened to what the Professor had to say.

"I already know about the attack at the school, and I won't complain due to the fact that no one is hurt and no Human remembers. I know he was just trying to carry out orders, but I never thought that they'd go as far as to attack Mneme while she was at school," Xavier admitted. "I forgot to consider that this is Magneto we're dealing with."

Jean looked at the others, concerned for all of them. "So what are we going to do?" she asked, referring to Mneme going to school.

"The choice is up to Mneme. If she doesn't mind swiping the memory of everyone, she can remain going to school." the Professor explained. "I know that she'll be able to sense something or someone coming before any danger occurs, and she's perfectly capable of getting everyone to safety, it's just a decision on whether or not she wants to do it or not."

"I'll do it. I don't mind." Mneme spoke up immediately. _It'll be easier for them to find me, so I can finish them off faster, _Mneme added silently to herself. She knew Xavier wouldn't approve of this, so she kept it to herself. Of course, Mneme didn't plan on killing anyone, just defeating them badly enough to where they would be afraid to come back. That was going to be harder than it sounded; the two that she had fought already didn't seem to have the tendency of giving up. "So," Mneme broke the silence, rubbing her hands together, "what's up for training?"

"We'll be playing Capture the Flag," Wolverine said tersely.

"The teams are Scott, Kurt, and Kitty against Jean, Evan, and Rogue." Beast said to them.

"We'll be watching from the sidelines on the cameras we set up," Ororo told Amanda. "It'll fun to see everyone's powers for the first time," she promised, putting an arm around her shoulder and walking her outside.

Mneme raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"

"You'll be trying to prevent each other from stealing the flags," Xavier told her, amused by how pleased she seemed. "Just don't kill anyone or make things too hard—we're just trying to get your powers under control and help the others with their stealth and evading."

"Sure thing, Prof.!" Mneme said with a sloppy salute. "Now let's suit up and get out of here." Teleporting to her room, Mneme already knew that a new clothing item had been added to her closet—her X-Men uniform. She opened the sliding mirror doors and saw it hanging on a clothes hangar. Slipping it on in her odd way of putting on and taking off clothes, she saw that it was tight, black, and had a certain flexibility that she liked. Now her acrobatic moves wouldn't be so hard to pull off like in jeans and a cotton shirt…

Mneme walked down the steps where the others stood waiting. Kurt whistled at her, which resulted in Kitty punching him in the head harder than anyone thought possible. "You're lucky _I_'_m_ not your girlfriend, or you'd be DEAD!" she screamed at him. He rubbed his head with his gloved hand.

"Jeez, Kitty, I vas only—"

"I DON'T EVEN WANT TO HEAR IT." Kitty said loudly, making the other students look at her oddly. Mneme chuckled again to herself.

_She's definitely getting jealous of you and Amanda,_ she thought to Kurt. He looked over at her with concern.

_But for how long until she decides to call it quits and go back to Lance?_ he thought back to her.

"Give it a few days." Mneme said aloud as she walked by. "Hurry up, you guys. I'm getting tired of waiting." The two teams huddled separately, trying to decide a good spot for their flags. Mneme walked a ways off so they wouldn't suspect her listening, but she could hear every word clear as a bell.

"I was thinking the peak of the mountain," Scott said. "What do you two think?"

"I think we should put it underground," Kitty answered, her voice still carrying a tone of rage. "It'll be easy for me to slip under and leave it there."

"The mountain sounds harder to get," Kurt piped up. Kitty looked at him with a defiant stare.

"You and me are the only people able to get it!" she said in a loud whisper. "Do you know how hard it'll be for them to get our flag if it's underground?"

"She's got a point," Scott agreed. With a sigh, Kurt nodded.

As they were speaking, Jean was devising a plan to hide the flag also. "If any of them saw the flag, it would be impossible for us to stop them from getting it because of Kurt. He can easily teleport to the flag, take it, and teleport to his own flag," she pointed out.

"So what's your plan?" Rogue asked her.

"Who said she had a plan?" Evan said.

"She's _always_ got a plan," Rogue said irritably.

Jean continued, "If you could get Kurt's power," she started, talking to Rogue, "you can hide it deep underwater. They won't be able to see it there and they won't even suspect something like that. Evan, you and I can create a diversion to hold them off while Rogue gets the power." They all nodded and the huddles broke up. Xavier and the teachers stood a ways off. Amanda walked over to Mneme and handed her two large flags, one blue with a silver lightning bold and the other red with a golden flame embroidered in it.

"You're supposed to hand them their flags," she told her. Leaving the flags to Mneme, Amanda walked off back to the teachers and television screens. "Good luck, Kurt!" she called out as she waved. He gave her a cheesy grin and a thumbs-up. Mneme held a flag in each hand. The poles had to be over six feet.

"You have thirty minutes to get your flags wherever you want them," Ororo announced loudly. "After that, you cannot move your flag. In order for you to return your flag if it's been stolen, you have to take it back from the one who has it and place it back in the _exact_ same spot as before. No hiding the flags in buildings or houses. The team to get the most points by eight o'clock wins, and the losing team has to do house work. Mneme will be preventing each team from getting anywhere after your thirty minutes is up. Is everyone ready?" Both teams nodded. Mneme walked out, figuring that was her cue, and twirled the flags around in her hands with a big grin. Just for a bit of fun, she set the rim of the red flag on fire and gave the blue one electric sparks all over it. Like spears, she took the flags in one hand and threw them, sticking them into the ground in front of the correct teams.

"_Have fun_," Mneme said with a toothy grin in a taunting way, curling her fingers in a teasing-type way. They looked at the flags with concern.

"Man, that's just weird," Evan said, examining their blue flag closely.

"Is it…safe to touch them?" Scott asked, hesitantly outstretching a hand.

"Would I put elements on them if it wasn't?" Mneme asked as if it were obvious. "Of course it's safe. They're fake." Indeed, the electricity shocks had no shock and the burning fire had no burn. Jean and Scott each picked a flag.

"And…_start_!" Storm shouted. Rogue tore a small hole in her glove and walked over to Nightcrawler.

She stuck out her hand. "May the best sibling win."

Kurt put out his hand and grasped hers firmly. "Of course—" he started, but he soon had about half his energy drained before Rogue let go. She laughed a bit and teleported over to her team. Kurt ran a hand through his hair tiredly. "That vasn't quite fair if you ask me." Scott put a hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon," he said in an assuring kind of tone. Kurt took Kitty's wrist and they disappeared, leaving a small ring of smoke. The other team took either of Rogue's shoulders and also vanished. Mneme leaned against a tree and wondered if she should go to the meadow and check on Pietro…

Walking over to the mentors, she said, "I'm going to go think up some good traps to put wherever," she told them. Quickly, Mneme glanced at the six changing observation screens. Of course, one of them was of the meadow, but it quickly changed to a serene forest. "So…I'll see you later!" Mneme waved and teleported to the forest skirting the flowers, locating the observation camera lodged in the crook of two branches and adjusting it so it replayed flowers blowing in the wind over and over. Her mentors would never notice anything at all. She was only going to be a few minutes, then she'd set it back to normal. Mneme looked over the field, scanning it slightly like a copying machine would scan a picture. From one edge of the vast field of flowers to the other she searched, eventually tracking Pietro down amidst the sea of sweet fragrances. He was lying on his back with his hands behind his head and eyes closed. Although it appeared he was sleeping, his face looked disturbed, as if something was tormenting him on the inside. She walked out of the woods and a couple hundred yards out, standing over him. Crouching down, Mneme poked his cheek. "Pietro…" she called quietly. He stirred slightly, his brow furrowing as the knot in his chest tightened…

In a dream, Pietro was feeling so horrible—he was to blame for everything that was happening to Mneme. He was just sitting in a void, no one there, his thoughts closing in on him, the world pushing on him…crushing his bones, suffocating him. The Mneme was there in the void also. She was looking down at him curled up and helpless against his emotions. He looked up at her hopefully, but all she said was, "I see the blame is settling in nicely" before evaporating into nothing. There was nothing he could do as the darkness swallowed him up—

He woke up in shock, giving a small yell that made Mneme fall on her butt next to him. She held an arm up in defense, not sure how crazy he was going to react. He was breathing heavily, hand on his forehead, cold sweat dripping off him nervously. When his breathing steadied, he looked around, then jumped at the sight of Mneme. "What are you doing here? I thought you didn't want to see me anymore?"

Mneme looked ashamed. "I've figured things out—I suppose I was overreacting before. There's no reason for me to break up with you…. Although I don't remember us officially dating…" she said with a slight bit of wonder, looking up at the cotton clouds.

"No, we're together. We've been together ever since I laid eyes on you—" he said in a rush, trying to make sure that nothing was going to separate them again.

Mneme tilted her head. "So you just decided that I was yours when you saw me? Then why'd you attack me?"

"No! I didn't mean it like that—you were mine whenever you decided to be mine," he said nervously, saying anything to appease her. Thinking about what she said, Pietro shook his head. "And you attacked me first—I had to do something…" Mneme laughed, sitting back on her hands.

"You're funny." She put out an arm and pushed him down with incredible force as she sat next to him, staring off into the flowers. "Relax." She took her hand off and took a deep breath of the flowers. "It's nice here."

After regaining his breath from Mneme's bone crushing push, he was going to talk, but didn't know what to say. It would seem odd for a guy's favorite place to be a field of _flowers_. He couldn't tell her that. Maybe a field of bombs or a field of marijuana for some dudes, but flowers was just a little too feminine for some people to accept. "Yeah." He managed to say uneasily. He propped himself up on his elbows.

"It's okay, I already know that this is your favorite place to be. You can get away from everything and everybody. I understand," Mneme said, flopping down onto the ground, pollen floating around in the slightest breeze. Pietro lay down beside her, searching for her hand. Once he found it, they intertwined fingers. He smiled and sighed with relief. His dreams weren't going to be pressuring him anymore.

"Y'know, when I saw you in that X-Men outfit, it kinda made me mad, but it actually really looks good on you," Pietro said with a laugh, Mneme joining in.

Rogue and her teammates stood at the edge of the beach, watching the waves. "So how far away do I have to put this thing?" she asked Jean.

Jean thought. "About fifty feet under—I'd say go about twenty-five yards out." Rogue nodded and teleported, but she ended up high in the air, falling onto the water with a loud _pop!_ Under the water, she reappeared at the bottom. Her ears ached from the pressure of the water, and her eyes could hardly see three feet in front of her. The murky beach water had been stirred recently, but by what?

_It doesn't matter, _Rogue told herself urgently. She planted the flag as far as she could with some effort. It looked about three feet in the sand when she realized she needed air. She teleported back on the beach in a panic but ended up in a palm tree a ways off from her friends. She slipped down the branch and palm frawn, landing on her but and gaining a few scratches on her back. Rogue stood and walked over to Jean and Evan. "Now what?"

"Now we wait."

Kitty took the flag and examined the area. It was up on a small hill, which was perfect. She sank down into the ground until the tip of the flag was no longer visible from the surface, then pulled herself back up. "Done. They'll never find it."

"Great job. Now all we have to do is wait for the signal to begin."

Back at the mansion, Storm watched the clock tick down. Flare gun pointed upwards, she pulled the trigger when the hand clicked down to the last second. The flare burst into flames high above them in the clear sky. Mneme looked up at it, and so did Pietro.

"You've gotta go. We're having a training session around here, and I don't want you to be caught up in it," Mneme said, looking at him sadly. "I wish you didn't have to go."

"I don't. We can stay right here," he said, rolling onto his stomach, getting closer to her. He grinned toothily, but she shook her head.

"I'm part of the training too. Just go. I'll…see you at school tomorrow." Mneme smiled at him, trying to make him agree with her by using her feminine charm. He rolled his eyes, but smiled.

"Fine." he said with a smile. Then he was gone, flower petals being kicked up into the wind.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

_Well, this is boring._

_Sorry it's so boring and long._

_I guess I used too much description._

_I told you that I'd have more of the other characters, and this whole chapter is full of the students._

_So...yeah... Extra long and boring chapters. Just what the doctor ordered. Actually, I'm sure that doctors read a ton of boring stuff..._

_Maybe not. They might actually read interesting things. It's just that being a doctor sounds boring..._

_Unless you're planning to kill someone. Then it'd be fun. You could just poison them..._

_Or disect them... Or something else doctorish. It would be total torture... Doctors are weird._

_What the hell am I talking about? Just read the story. Sorry for rambling. ^^_

**Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution or any of its characters.**

**Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up.**

**Chapter Fifteen**

Mneme watched for about a quarter of a second before Pietro was out of sight. She could still feel the warmth of his hand around hers. How could people say he was stuck-up and full of himself? He was the most thoughtful person Mneme knew! But she couldn't daydream; she had to get ready to send some obstacles for the other students. She stood up and looked around, sensing that the Red Team had hidden their flag close by. Putting the camera back to normal, she held out her hands and the trees started moving.

Scott and the others looked up at the flare. "That's the signal." The team had already discussed that if they had someone guarding the flag, it would be too obvious where it was, so they were all going to invade the Blue Team's space and get their flag. It was most likely that there would be one person guarding the flag, the other two searching for the red flag. So the Blue team headed out in separate directions. Scott—better known as Cyclops during fights and practices—was heading towards the mountains, their alternative pick for a flag spot. The wind around him stirred a bit, then he heard an odd sound echoing around the trees—an uuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrkkkkkk! sound. He looked around, expecting Mneme or some monster to jump out at him. Fingers at his red-quarts visor, he was ready to attack whatever came at him.

Or so he thought.

Suddenly a branch with a big knot at the end came swooping down and smashed him in the gut, sending him flying backwards and into a tree trunk. Slightly dizzy, he looked up at the trees' canopy. It was coming closer to him—a little too fast for his liking. He jumped up and looked around him, unsure what exactly was going on. Suddenly the roots to the trees started shifting and he saw that the trees were bending over him, their branches aimed for him. Holding back a nervous yell, he shot his optic laser at the trees, but they ricocheted from tree to tree, like a pinball game, until it hit him in the back, sending him to the ground. The roots were scrambling nearer and nearer, pulling trees closer to him. Scott jumped back up, then ducked as a thick branch was swung at him. Vines were shot out at him, but he used his laser against them. The vines fell broken to the ground. I think I'm getting the hang of this, Cyclops thought to himself.

Shadowcat, on the other hand, wasn't having such luck. She was told to check throughout the forest in search of the Blue Team's flag, but trees were being uprooted all around her, scaring her out of her wits. Now she was running through trees—you know, literally—and animals were chasing her. Birds were pulling at her hair and a snake had even tried to trip and bite her. Shadowcat just sped through it, but now a rabbit in pursuit of her, jumping faster and faster, almost on her heels. She gave a shriek and fell through the ground, unsure of what else to do. Pulling her knees closer to her, she felt something tickle her shoulder. It was dark, so she couldn't see, but when she put her hand on her arm and picked up a long, many-legged insect, she screamed in terror. "CENTIPEDE!" her scream reached the surface, and she appeared above the ground, covered with bugs. Shadowcat danced around, trying to get the insects to fall off.

Nightcrawler was surprisingly having fun. His job was to go to the beach and search there. He had been teleporting from branch to moving branch. Completely forgetting about his current duty. The trees seemed to be getting angrier with him by the second. The more times they tried to wallop him, the quicker he teleported and appeared in another spot. Even the bushes were trying to attack him, along with underbrush and brambles. A tree branch swung at him, and Nightcrawler teleported—right into the thorns of a clump of brambles. They latched on tightly, digging thorns into him. "Get off!" he ordered, shaking his leg, trying to get the thorns to come loose. Suddenly vines were wrapped around him, coming from all sides. They pulled tightly, and teleporting had no longer become a choice; the vines would just come with him…. A tree swung a branch and hit him in the head. "Hey! Quit that!" he yelled, trying to break free, but even more trees decided to take their frustration out on him.

Mneme, satisfied with her handiwork, dissolved into thin air and reappeared at the tree line of the shore, spotting Evan, Jean, and Rogue. Since Rogue had already stolen some of Nightcrawler's powers, they had to make a new plan. Jean and Rogue were going to search for anyone that was part of the Red Team, then Jean would read their mind to figure out where the flag was. Spyke was going to patrol the shore and guard the flag. Mneme used her mind to take hold of the beach's sand and rolled her wrist around and around, creating a small sandstorm. Jean and Rogue had already left, but now Spyke had no way of seeing. With a snicker, she went off to make some traps for the other two.

Rogue teleported to the mountain, knowing that it would be a likely place to hide a flag. She wasn't the best at teleporting, so she had ended up only near the top instead of at the peak itself. She looked down, the ground seeming so much farther away than she had expected. Not willing to take her chances of teleporting (for all she knew, she may end up above the clouds and fall to her death), Rogue decided to just climb up the rest of the way. A ledge jutting out was blocking her view of the top. She grabbed hold of the rock above her, but it crumbled into nothing. Rogue's face fell. Perhaps this would be harder than she thought. Heart pounding, she took her chances and teleported on top of the ledge. She breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed some rock and put her boot in a foothold. Suddenly a gravelly grinding sound was heard below her. Rogue looked over her shoulder to see that the ledge was being pulled into the mountain itself. Scrambling upwards, she knew that Mneme must be doing this—either that or Avalanche was getting better with his powers. Digging her foot into the rocks and clutching on with her hand, she held her breath and got ready to teleport. Abruptly her foothold jutted outward, pushing her foot out from under her so she lost her grip and started tumbling down the mountainside. Trying to clear her mind, Rogue teleported—amazingly ending up at the top. After she looked around, she saw that the flag wasn't there and was about to teleport to the ground when the top sprang up, throwing her into the air. All around her, pillars were coming out of the side of the mountain, tossing her back and forth. Every time she teleported, another pillar would spring up and throw her back to the mountain so the stone would juggle her again. Once she was able to teleport herself to the ground, but the dirt just went up like a geyser and shot her back to where the pillars would pop out of the mountain and pitch her every which way.

Jean was at the edge of the forest, surprised at what she saw. The trees were…moving. "That's just unnatural…" The trees, somehow hearing her, became aware of her presence and turned to "look at her", Jean guessed. One took a swing at her, using its branches like a club, and another used its branches to direct vines at her. With a gasp, she put her fingers to her temples and struggled to stop the vines, but she controlled them to wrap around the other tree's branches. Now tangled together, the trees struggled to pull apart, so Jean utilized this time to run by. What she hadn't been expecting was shrubs ready to attack her. They (somehow) jumped off the ground and landed right on her, knocking her down and rooting themselves in the ground so she couldn't budge. She shut her eyes, concentrating her powers, and undid the two shrubs' roots and sent them flying through the trees—which were also moving. Her eyebrows tilted downward warily, but she was determined to get by.

Pietro was with the Brotherhood at their shabby place/house/hideout thing. Mystique sat at one end of the table, Pietro at the other, with Todd and Lance to his left and Fred to his right…now standing because his chair had broken under his massive weight. "Alright, what's the deal with this meeting?" Pietro asked impatiently. Mystique looked at him apathetically.

"You don't seem to be having any luck with that new girl, are you?" she accused, for some reason emphasizing the last part, as if just daring him to lie. Lance looked at him with a raised eyebrow; out of all the ones in the Brotherhood, he was the only other one to know about him and Mneme, along with Magneto's plan (which Lance didn't like one bit). Of course, being his pompous self, Pietro had denied every word of liking her, but it wasn't hard to tell. Judging by the way they looked at each other, plus overhearing things from the X-Morons, it was clear they were together. Pietro swore that it was just for the job, but no one—not even Pietro—could act that well. He was obviously falling head over heels for her. ("Head over heels…" When it gets down to being technical, your head is naturally over your heels, so it doesn't really make sense…)

Pietro leaned back in his seat and grinned. "Things are goin' just fine." Putting his hands behind his head, he thought about what other flowers Mneme might like… She probably likes all of them…even the ugly ones, nasty-smelling ones, and the ones that die really easy. he told himself. Then he thought about that. Some flowers only grow in certain parts of the world—it would be hard to get those…. It doesn't matter. I'll get them for her. That thought cleared him mind and his smile was bigger than ever.

"Is that so? Then what have you found out about her?"

Pietro side-smiled. "Not much…" he lied. "Nothing of importance…"

Mystique wasn't buying it. "From now on we're aborting this mission and moving on to Plan B."

"I don't like the look on her face, yo…" Todd said hesitantly. Pietro opened his eyes and looked at Mystique challengingly.

"So what? You wanna kill her? Have fun trying." he snickered.

Mystique laughed, a sound that was both deceiving and disturbing. "Not me," she said as if the thought were absurd. "You four will be doing the killing. It'll be easy if you all work together."

"I'll crush her into the dirt!" Fred said, pounding his fists on the table and to some extent cracking it. Lance cast another wary glance at Pietro, but didn't make it noticeable to Mystique. Todd looked at little sorry.

"She's pretty cool, yo. It ain't like she hates out guts just for bein' us, y'know?" Todd said with a shrug. Pietro didn't budge. He was going to try his best to act like he didn't care, and that he wasn't going to be a part of it because she was crazy and unbeatable.

"Yeah, she's alright." Lance agreed, knowing how it felt to have a girlfriend who believed in a totally different cause. "Just because she's with the X—"

Mystique slammed her fists on the table. "I don't want to hear anything from you!" she yelled at him, losing her temper. "Just because your girlfriend is with the X-Men doesn't mean it's okay to let one of their members slide by!"

"That's not what I was sayin'—"

"You'll find her today and attack—we can't have the X-Men in possession of possibly the most powerful Mutant alive." Mystique looked at all of their faces. Fred really didn't care; he just took orders and beat people up. Todd looked a little regretful, but he was willing to do what Mystique said. Lance was glaring at the ground, not happy with what Mystique said, but Pietro was laughing.

"Are you kidding? She'll tear you guys apart. Why do you think Magneto left you guys in the first place? Because you're incompetent. You can't beat any of the X-Men members, so what makes you think you can beat the girl who's got every power you can think of?" No one could answer. "Count me out; I don't feel like dying because of something stupid, Mystique." And with that, Pietro left the house and slammed the door with a laugh. My act was pretty good, if I do say so myself…

Scott doubted that the Blue Team had hidden their flag in the forest—he knew they would've encountered someone by now. He concentrated on dodging the swinging branches of various trees and plants. He shot his optic lasers at the smaller plants and vines, but he could do nothing against the trees. Running as fast as he could and looking back every few seconds, he almost ran into a tree—a big evergreen. He presumed that it was safe here—the trees couldn't reach him and the pine tree didn't seem to be moving at all. Cyclops leaned down against the vast trunk and took a few deep breaths. The shade was nice also. The angry trees seemed to be talking amongst themselves, judging by all the urk! sounds coming from all around him. A pinecone hit him in the head, dropped from the branch above him. Scott rubbed the top of his head and picked up the pinecone next to him on the ground. It was humongous—about a foot tall. It also had two little twigs sticking out of the bottom. He laughed; they looked like little legs. "Ooof!" he grunted as a few more fell onto his shoulders and fell to the ground. They had little legs too… "Oh no." It had to be Mneme's trick—they were little legs! They started wiggling around and jumping on him, acorns popping out of the sides for eyes. He yelled in shock and threw it off him, but more and more kept falling from the trees, pelting him and then jumping on him, latching on with twig arms that they sprouted. He desperately tried to shake or pull them off, but he was soon immobile, a giant pile of scary pinecones.

Kitty had finally got the bugs off and found a distraction for the birds. She had hundreds of bugs on her, from cockroaches to millipedes to pill bugs to crickets—you get the point. So she had jumped around and freaked out so much that eventually they all fell off, so the birds returning to pull at her hair and peck her skin were occupied—for now. She was running as fast as she could, phasing through trees and branches and shrubs. It wasn't long before she reached the outskirts of the forest and went to the base of the mountain. From where she stood, she couldn't see anything, but she heard the grinding of rocks. She grinned; Jean was probably practicing her telekinesis on the mountain's boulders, so she phased through the base of the mountain and onto the other side, only to see Rogue looking around before closing her eyes and teleporting away. She ended up behind Shadowcat, but half a second before she could even start running or teleport again, both of them were pushed into the air by a heavy spray of dirt, sending both girls onto the mountainside. A cylinder of pure rock projected sideways out of the mountain and pushed them both off their feet and into the air, only to be hit by another pillar coming at them from below. They flew up and up, then they started falling downward. "Rogue!" Kitty called, but Rogue had taken too many hits. She floated downward, unconscious in the air, so Kitty reached out and grabbed Rogue's arm, struggling as they flew faster and faster towards the ground. Shadowcat used her power to go through and upcoming pillar and through the ground.

Nightcrawler, seeing no other choice, had teleported away and over to the beach. The vines were still constricting him and the brambles were still digging into his leg. He hopped on one leg down the shore, trying to beat the sandstorm, but it knocked him over no matter how hard he tried. He lay on the ground, being suffocated by a bunch of vines. He rolled down the shore, trying to find someone to help him. Soon enough he bumped into something that was spiky and rocky—Evan? It was too hard to tell with all the sand blowing around. The vines gagged him before Kurt could say anything, but the silhouette turned to him, spikes disappearing. It was Evan! Quickly he produced a spike out of his wrist and cut Kurt's binds, then pulled off the brambles and threw them into the wind.

Jean ran through the forest, protecting herself with her mind powers, but she was wearing them out. She had to take a rest—and soon. Up ahead was a pine tree—that wasn't moving. That meant it had to be safe. Jean quickly made her way over to the tree and sat down next to a pile of pinecones. She leaned her head back and took a few deep breaths. Unexpectedly a muffled noise came from the pile. Surprised and debating on her sanity, Jean looked at it with wide eyes. "Maybe I need to rest a bit more…" She closed her eyes, but still listened intently. The noise came again, and this time she knew it wasn't her imagination. Furrowing her brow, she crawled closer to it and went to move the top pinecone—but it jumped on her. She used her powers to throw it off, then moved another with her mind. A bit of brown hair stuck out, and the muffled noise came again. "Scott?" she gasped, putting her fingers to her temples and throwing all the pinecones away from them. Scott appeared, scratched and bruised. He spit out some pinecone bits and looked at Jean gratefully. "Those things could have killed you!" she exclaimed, noticing that they were coming back. Scott shot beams at the all of them, exploding the little monsters into smithereens.

"Phew…that was close," Scott laughed nervously. Jean nodded in agreement. "I was thinking…"

"That maybe Mneme is taking it too far?" Jean suggested. Scott rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. "She's just trying to prove herself—she's making sure we don't get anywhere."

"I know she was supposed to prevent us from getting the flags, but she seems to want to kill us."

"I'm sure if she wanted to kill us, she would." Jean reminded. The couple sighed. "I suppose the only way out of this is to finish the game."

Mneme was lying in the flowers, watching everything in her mind. So far things were going extremely well—her companions were tired and hardly had any will to go onward, but she knew the X-Men wouldn't give up. They never did. Then Mneme sat up, sensing someone coming, but he was already there. "Pietro. I wasn't expecting you back here until tonight. I know how you hate that lumpy bed, so you come here to sleep when you can." He sat next to her, watching the sky turn pink. It was beautiful, a perfect time to be with Mneme…but he wasn't here to spend time with her.

"Yeah—the flowers didn't start blooming until Sunday. It was actually only Wednesday when I found out about the moonflowers—" He shook his head, trying to get to the real reason why he came. "But that's not the point. I came here to tell you that the Brotherhood doesn't want you anymore—well, Mystique doesn't want you anymore. The guys will be attacking you now—so I don't know if I can be seen with you anymore. I mean, if Mystique figures that—"

"Do you ever shut up?" Mneme asked bluntly. "I already knew. I had nothing better to do, so I located Mystique and figured out what she was up to. Your act went well. She actually believed you."

Pietro looked a little shocked at first, but then grinned. "Of course she did. I do that stuff all the time." he said, slightly bragging. "But I just wanted you to know that the guys will be hostile from now on, so don't treat them like friends anymore."

"You didn't have to tell me that; I can tell when someone is hostile or not."

Pietro rolled his eyes. "I know, you know basically everything. Just try not to kill them. I don't want Magneto to have my head because I'm supposed to be training them, and if they show up dead…"

"I'm going to kill Magneto. I already told you that."

"I know, I was just—" He stopped. Did he really want Magneto dead? That was practically his leader…his boss. He got paid big bucks for every mission that he did—plus it was his dad…. It was a hard decision between the two of them…. They both had done so much for him…

"You should probably go; they're going to be here any moment, and if they find out that you alerted me, they won't be very happy." Mneme told him. Pietro smiled down at her affectionately.

"Of course, just when I thought things were going to go smoothly, everything backfires and you have more people attacking you." After that he was gone. Mneme laughed to herself; of course, people who didn't know as much as her were going to want to join her, have her join them, or kill her, and if the first two were denied, then they'd want to kill her. The thought made her laugh some more; trying to kill someone who was invincible was completely impossible. "So you finally made it?" she questioned the three boys standing in front of her.

"Yeah, and we're not here to negotiate." Avalanche said. "We've got a bone to pick with you."


	16. Chapter Sixteen

_Yay! Update!_

_It's the end of Capture the Flag._

_Well, Chapter Sixteen! Lot's of the characters! Enjoy!_

_Sorry that it's a really short chapter compared to my other ones..._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Sixteen**

Mneme hopped up and onto her feet in one swift movement. "Really?" she raised an eyebrow. "Just what is it?"

"Mystique says we gotta kill ya, yo," Toad said. "We don't really want to—" Then the Blob knocked him out of his senses and into the ground.

"Yes we do!" he protested. "We're gonna squish you like a bug." he said, pressing his fist into his palm and twisting it around, as if he were squashing a bug. Mneme jutted out a hip and crossed her arms.

With an inquisitive stare, she said, "Is that so? Well, I'd like to see you try." she said challengingly. The three guys looked at each other, not exactly sure of how they were supposed to attack her. All three knew she was super-powerful, and could do almost anything. How were they supposed to compete with that?! Mneme _was_ getting a little bored with just causing obstacles for the X-Men students—she was sure a little fun wouldn't hurt.

Fred pushed Lance aside, onto the ground, and stepped forward. "I'll pound you into a thumbtack!" he bellowed loudly, his voice echoing around the moving trees. Mneme raised her eyebrows in a challengingly, but looked at her nails with a hand on her hip.

"I don't believe you're powers will allow you to do that." She looked at the three boys, the other two on their feet now. "Attacking me will be a mistake. If you go tell Mystique that you refuse to fight me, she'll be mad, but you won't be hurt."

"You can't hurt me," the Blob laughed.

"I'll take it easy on you, but I will treat you like an enemy." Mneme warned them as they stepped forward. Of course, they didn't listen, so she sighed exasperatedly. "Okay, you asked for it…" Mneme held her curled hands close together, a ball of white light forming. Thrusting her arms forward, the orb of light shot at the Blob, sending him to the ground and out of breath. Avalanche, slightly annoyed that she attacked, caused an earthquake, the land splitting open right below Mneme. She stayed where she was, floating in the air above the gap. Taking a look at the boys' shaken faces, she said, "Weren't you expecting something like this?" Toad spit at her, the glob hitting her face and crusting up, making it so she couldn't see. But it simply was absorbed by her skin, revealing a toothy grin that almost assured her triumph. "You don't know what you just started." She held out a hand and an energy pulse swept throughout the flowers, knocking Toad and Avalanche back to the ground. She looked untouchable, almost magical, as all the flower petals flew off from her attack, drifting in the breeze.

_She did that with almost no effort at all—maybe Pietro wasn't lying after all,_ Avalanche thought to himself, struggling to get up, but his shaky arms couldn't lift him up; it seemed that all their energy had been drained. Toad was somehow able to get back on his feet and shoot his tongue out at her, but she caught it in her hand and gave him a stern look from a side-glance. Toad's eyes widened in horror and he tried to pull his slimy tongue back in, but it was no use. "That was not a good move…" Lance said to him. Todd gave out a little whimper when a smile broke across Mneme's face, then he was lifted into the air and spun around above her head. Lance got dizzy just looking at the blur. Mneme was on the verge of laughing. She swung Todd at Lance, the two boys colliding. Then she wrenched Todd back in the air and cast him out to hit Fred, who was now thundering over to her. Toad's body hit the Blob's stomach, and Mneme let go of Toad's tongue, so both boys flew back at least twenty feet. Mneme pulled the flower out of her hair, put the aloof strands behind her ear, then pinned the flower back.

"Do you give up yet?" she asked with a smirk, tilting her head to the side. Lance furrowed his brow, and Toad looked at her with confusion.

"Have you been hangin' with Quicksilver, yo?" Todd asked. Mneme furrowed her brow in anger. "That looks like the flowers he keeps in his room to make it smell good."

"What are you talking about? That doesn't have anything to do with now!" she said, lightening up. The two boys looked at each other, Todd now figuring out what Pietro's "mission" was all about. "I don't have time for you. I have some flags to prevent being taken." Snapping her fingers, the three boys disappeared, returned to their shabby home. Mystique was doing the dishes, but turned around at the sight of the three defeated boys. The dish in her hand broke from too much pressure, her anger getting the best of her.

She said through gritted teeth, "You didn't kill her?!"

"Uh…"

"We can explain…"

Mneme sat back down in the petal-less flowers. With a sweep of her hand, they were all reattached to the correct flower, a small sliver of light sealing them back to the stem. Her smile was now faded, and her eyebrows were slanted down warily. What if Pietro got in trouble? It was bound to happen sooner or later, the boys figuring out, but would they tell Mystique now that Mneme and the Brotherhood were enemies? "I'm not going to let those bozos put me in a bad mood," she decided. "Besides, I can't let them get near those flags…" Mneme grinned and got her head back in the game.

Shadowcat had Rogue's arm over her shoulder, having difficulty carrying her through the moving trees. It wasn't long before Kitty couldn't go on any farther. She collapsed next to a few lonely flowers, then thought to herself, _Maybe if I just gave Rogue a bit of my energy, she'll wake up._ Kitty pulled off Rogue's glove extremely carefully, and then touched her with one finger. A small zap went through both their bodies, and Rogue awoke. Kitty smiled at her great idea. "I knew it would work!" Suddenly a bunch of pollen was floating in the air. Looking at the flowers with horror, Shadowcat fell unconscious, as did Rogue.

Jean's splitting headache came from overusing her powers as she and Scott tried to make their way through the forest. Her vision had become tripled and blurry, so it was almost mandatory for Scott to carry her. He hoisted her onto his back and locked his arms around her legs. It was going to be harder to dodge the trees this way, but it would have to do. For the moment things seemed safe, the trees had moved off to either find him or antagonize someone else, so he fumbled over the churned dirt, trying to get over to the mansion where it was safe. She was now sleeping soundly. As he continued onward, and made his way up a steep hill, only to find a wide split in the earth. truth, it had been Avalanche who did it, but he had only assumed that Mneme had done it to prevent them from getting back. Nonetheless, Mneme was using it to her advantage. Scott jumped across, almost falling backwards because of Jean's weight on his back, and continued on. But not for long. A few seconds after, Scott heard a grumbling noise, turned, and saw the biggest Venus-fly-trap in his life—easily reaching fifty feet—as it sprung out of the gorge. Scott reached for his visor to shoot a laser, but had forgotten his arms that were hooked with Jean's legs, so that gave the plant enough time to emit an odd grin, then close its jaws around the two, swallowing them whole.

Nightcrawler took Spyke's arm and teleported them out of the storm and in the shallow waters. Sand still pelted them, but at least it wasn't the full storm. The two boys caught their breath and tried to analyze their situation. Kurt still wanted the flag, but Evan wanted to team up with him and get to safer ground; things were just getting out of hand. As they were disputing, a rushing noise was approaching them and a shadow overcame the two. In unison they looked up at the monster tidal wave that was pressing closer. Trying to teleport, Nightcrawler realized that the ocean was locked around both their ankles—it was preventing him from leaving because he hadn't developed his powers enough to move the whole ocean. The two teens looked up in horror, and before they knew it the wave was upon them. Since they were held in place, the force of the wave crashed down on them, knocking them out. After that the ocean let go of them and they swiftly coasted with the wave until it slowed, calmly washing them upon the shore.

Mneme appeared behind her mentors, who were still watching the observation screens. Xavier turned to look at her. "Well done with the Brotherhood. I take that they no longer wish for you to join them…?" he asked.

"Correct."

"Bang-up job with the obstacles!" Beast congratulated. "Though I have to admit, you did take it a little too far…" Mneme frowned at his last comment.

"I only threw at them what their powers were capable of," she defended herself.

Storm stepped forward and put a hand on the downhearted girl's shoulder. "When you use those powers, they might be able to handle those things. But their powers haven't been fully built-up; they're not as strong as yours. Next time just try a lower level." Mneme still wasn't quite happy, although Ororo had tried to cheer her up. "Your ideas were wonderful though. We'll definitely put some of those into our defense system." she promised. Her student beamed up at her; Mneme didn't have to question her to see that she was telling the truth. Snapping her fingers, she brought the students back, the eldest two covered in slime. All of them were unconscious.

"Ooops…"


	17. Chapter Seventeen

_Alrighty._

_Chapter Seventeen._

_I hope it's good! Please review! Enjoy!_

_This is the longest chapter yet, just because the last chapter was so short..._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Seventeen**

Mneme didn't bother to wake anyone up; she assumed that they needed their rest after fighting against her obstacles. Everyone awoke in their beds, enduring the aftershock of their unconsciousness. They all came down the stairs at about the same time, supper ready for them. It was marinated steak, mashed potatoes, and tons of sides to choose from. Everyone dug in hungrily, Mneme watching them. She wondered how it tasted, but refused to eat anything.

"Since you did such a good job controlling your powers these last couple days," Professor Xavier started, "we've decided that you should move the dial up a notch. That is, if you're ready." Mneme beamed at her mentors. Without hesitation, she nodded and reached for the dial. "We were thinking that maybe you could do it in a secluded area—just in case." he quickly added. Her face slightly fell a little, but Mneme understood. She nodded and put her hand down.

Looking at the empty plate in front of her, she asked, "May I try some of those?" Mneme was pointing at the mashed potatoes.

"You can have whatever you want; just because you don't need to eat doesn't mean we won't let you," Beast reminded.

"Yes, you're part of this family. What's ours is yours." Storm agreed. Mneme took the big spoon in the dish and scooped some of the mushy food onto her plate.

Wolverine passed the gravy over to her. "You can put it on the potatoes if you want." he said gruffly before unsheathing a claw and sticking it through a slab of juicy grilled steak. Nodding, Mneme took the gravy. It came out of the pour spout very quickly, flooding her plate and food. She quickly grabbed hold of the thick liquid with her mind and put some back before it started dripping off her dish. She put the gravy down and picked up her spoon, poking at the potatoes before trying a little bit. Once it hit her mouth, the taste was so overpowering she almost got tears.

"Vhat do you think?" Kurt asked her. Mneme swallowed, blinking back tears.

"The taste is very strong, but good." She gave a thumbs-up and scooped more into her mouth until her cheeks were bulging. She swallowed painfully, but then extended her lips and encased the rim of the plate, inhaling the rest of the mashed potatoes and gravy. When her lips returned to normal, the students looked disgusted and slightly worried for their safety. "Yum!" Mneme rubbed her stomach. "May I be excused?" she asked. Xavier nodded, unmoved by her sudden display of unnatural ability. She stood and walked away, up the stairs, and into her room. Opening the two window doors, she felt the crisp cool air hit her face. It was peaceful, but someone was near…. Mneme turned in an instant, only to see Pietro standing over her. She relaxed with a deep sigh of relief. "It thought you'd be one of Magneto's fiends trying to kill me."

Pietro smoothed back his hair and raised an eyebrow. "How do you know I'm not?"

Mneme gave a short laugh. "You're funny." Pietro's face fell.

"How so?"

"I don't know—you just come up with absurd things. I know you would never attack me." She walked by him and gestured to the bed. "Have a seat. Unless you want me to conjure up a chair for you?"

Pietro shook his head and walked over to the bed. He sat on the gray blanket; it was so much comfier than the one he had back at the Brotherhood base… "I'm fine like this," he assured. Mneme conjured two cans of soda from thin air. She handed them to Pietro. "Don't you want one?"

"I'm not too sure—I don't think I'm ready to eat anything else besides tofu and mashed potatoes," she said, shrugging.

"Soda is really good, but I'm sure you know what you're missing out on." Pietro said, cracking one open and putting the other next to him. The bed was so fluffy that it just tipped over. "I mean, you do know everything you want to know." He took a sip from the drink. "Raspberry soda really is the best—it tastes just like strawberry wine. Don't ask me why." The two laughed, not because it was funny, just because they were able to have an actually conversation together peacefully. Or maybe it wasn't just that, but because their whole situation was completely ironic.

"Well, I'm glad you came," Mneme said, leaning over and embracing him. When she stood back up, Pietro was smiling goofily, almost dazed. "Your soda is spilling." Pietro shook his head to snap back into reality and, indeed, his arm was hanging over the edge of the bed, holding the can at an angle so the soda was leaking out. He quickly lifted it back up, grinning sheepishly, his face turning red. Mneme waved her hand and it was swept out the window. "I could've put it back in the can, but I figured that you wouldn't want to drink after it touched the floor…even thought my floor is spotless and I filtered the soda once I took hold of it…" Pietro didn't seem to have taken it all in, so Mneme continued, "Would you like to go talk to Xavier? I'm sure everyone's still having supper—"

"N-no! Are you crazy?!" he said, his heart racing. "I'm not welcome here."

Mneme tilted her head to the side. "Of course you are. You saved me. I owe you my life, and everything those thugs could have stolen. I'm sure they'll allow you to join them for dinner." Pietro thought this over.

_Everything they could have stolen…. That's quite a bit of stuff—including virginity, that's for sure…_ Then he shook his head. _What am I thinking?! I'm not like those thugs—that's not what I'm with her for! _he told himself acquiescently, but then he got back to business. "I don't really feel like they'd…accept me here."

Mneme laughed. "Nonsense! They'll be glad you came—well, maybe not Wolverine, but he's not too glad when any outsider comes. Everyone else might be a bit wary, but otherwise you're fine. I'm sure of it." She took his wrist and led him out the door, dragging him down the steps with a delighted smile. Her effortless strength was almost overbearing; Pietro didn't have a chance to get away. Before he knew it, the two were standing in front of the whole X-Men group. "Pietro is here!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms up in celebration. He shielded his apprehensive face from them, trying to escape back out through the door, but Mneme took hold of his arm and pulled him to sit in her seat. Wolverine sat diagonal from him, glaring. "He's going to be joining us for the rest of dinner." She conjured up a chair and sat down. "I knew it'd be okay with you, Professor." Mneme sat patiently next to Pietro, who was sinking lower and lower in his seat by the second. "Dig in," she insisted, using telekinesis to put multiple food sorts onto Pietro's plate. Her hand grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him up, forcing him to sit straight in his seat. Pietro looked around at the others. Jean, Kitty, Amanda, and Kurt looked at him a little circumspectly, while Scott and Evan looked at him disapprovingly. Ororo, McCoy, and Xavier were unaffected by his presence, and Wolverine was still glaring but eating his food. Pietro hesitantly picked up his fork and started eating. The food was so delicious compared to the usual takeout he had to eat, he had trouble restraining himself. "See? I knew you would like it." Taking a drink of his soda to clear his throat for more food, he nodded. "Your silence is quite disturbing. Why don't you speak?" she asked everyone at the table.

"I'll tell you what's disturbing," Logan said sternly. "Having not only someone who's part of the Brotherhood, but also an accomplice of Magneto, sitting at _our_ table—while we're still eating."

"He's just enjoying a meal," Mneme said in his defense. "I don't see the harm in that."

Logan narrowed his eyes, but wasn't looking at Mneme. "You'd better hope we don't cross paths later," he said as he stood up, "because I'll make it so you can't walk any farther."

Pietro grinned; how could he deny challenging a threat? "If you can catch me," he said after swallowing. Logan gave a low growl before walking out into the kitchen to put his plate in the sink. The others were looking at him, clearly rejecting the idea of his boldness. Not noticing, Pietro continued to eat. Mneme sat silently, smiling to herself. To her, things seemed to be going well. Without so much talking going on, and the want to get away from the awkwardness at the table, the students quickly finished up their meals and returned their plates to the sink.

"Who is doing dish-duty?" Mneme asked the Professor.

"Since there wasn't really a winner, I assigned them all to do the dishes on a different day of the week." he told her. "Speaking of dish-duty, it doesn't seem like Rogue went to detention today."

Mneme assured, "It's taken care of. I've enchanted the dishes to wash themselves, but in the presence of a Human they return to regular trays." Xavier nodded, clearly impressed by her good idea.

"I do believe that Pietro is finished with his meal. If you would take his dishes up…" he suggested. Mneme understood that he didn't want a member of the Brotherhood walking around the mansion. She snapped her fingers and the dishes ended up in the sink.

Mneme stood and took Pietro's hand, pulling him up from the table. Her conjured chair disappeared. "We're just going to hang out for a bit before he goes home," she assured, taking him out of the room.

Beast scratched his head uncertainly. "Poor fellow. I'd bet he's just itching to get out of here." Beast thought it over before adding, "Or just out of the dining room. He may just want to get Mneme alone." Ororo looked at him inquisitively, and Xavier raised an eyebrow, pressing his fingertips together. "What? I was a teenager once, too!" he said with justification.

Mneme sat on the bed, crossing her legs squarely, while Pietro lay down beside her. "I'm beat. I could go to sleep right now," he admitted, savoring the comfort of the plush bed. "Speaking of which, you should probably turn off that collar of yours and take a rest."

Tilting her head confusedly, Mneme asked, "Why?"

He shrugged. "Resting is the only time I get real peace. Unless my conscious gets the best of me and makes me restless."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not quite as innocent as you think—I always have three choices: the good one, and two evil ones. Ones really horrible, doing worse than what is asked of me; or the lesser of the two evil, doing not quite as horrible as what's expected."

Raising an eyebrow, Mneme told him, "Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil." _(Found on __**Azusa-Phonos**__'s profile ^^)_

He shrugged. "Choosing good was given up a long time ago, for me. Anyway, I want you to get some sleep—dreams are usually welcome. They're interesting. You should try having some." Pietro bounced off the bed, holding the unopened can as he walked over to the door. Mneme sank through the blankets and the top sheet, appearing as if she had simply crawled under the covers.

"Why don't you sleep with me tonight?" she asked, snapping her fingers and replacing her clothes with a pair of Kitty's old pajamas. It was a gray tank top and pink silky pants—the pink didn't appeal to Mneme too much, so she changed them to black. Pietro grinned.

"I was wondering when our relationship was going to start taking off!" he said, unbuckling his belt. Mneme's face turned red and her expression was blank.

"I didn't mean _that_ kind of sleeping with me—I meant just sleeping next to me." Mneme explained. Pietro looked up, his hands still on either end of his undone belt. "It's a full sized bed—I'm sure there's enough room for the both of us to sleep side-by-side." Slightly disappointed, Pietro dropped the ends of his belt.

Clearing his throat, he said, "I think I should get home…. You know, with the Brotherhood wondering where I am and your people not really wanting me around…" Mneme furrowed her brow; she wasn't going to let him get away with the scheme he had just tried to pull.

"I won't sleep unless you're right here next to me." she said determinedly. Knowing he wasn't going to get anywhere, whether Mneme had to sleep or not, Pietro tried to see any way he would have a chance. He continued to remove his belt, now smirking.

"I sleep in my boxers, so I hope you don't mind." With a triumphant grin, he stripped down—not in any teasing way—to his boxers, putting his clothes in a wad outside of Mneme's closet, then slipping under the covers next to Mneme. She raised a hand to close the window with her powers, then turned the dial on her collar to the first notch, concealing all her powers. The energy within her was instantly drained, and she was so tired that her eyes could barely be kept open.

Mneme yawned, "I'm so tired…" And then she drifted off to sleep, her last sight being Pietro sleeping soundly with an arm over her waist.

She knew she was in a dream when her eyes opened. Mneme was laying down—no, she was strapped down. Looking around her, she saw a man and a woman in lab coats. "Mom? Dad?" she recognized. For some reason, she did not feel the same hate for them as before. She supposed it was because they had already paid dearly for what they had done.

"Don't call us that," the woman said. She had short, straight, auburn hair that swooped forward in the front to frame her face, which was the same shape as Mneme's. "You're no daughter to us, so we're not parents to you." Her voice was blunt, and she seemed like a very technical person. Her father, on the other hand, had blonde hair and a cowlick that sent his hair into his face. His eyes were stormy and blue—just like Mneme's. She also had his thin lips, though his weren't purpled like hers.

Mneme's heart broke in two; she had believed that her parents had loved her to some extent, but she was apparently wrong. "But why?"

"You're just a blur in our vision now; you mean nothing to us personally," her father told her unemotionally. "You're basically an experiment—what else are Mutants good for?" he asked her, screwing on a new blade to a scalpel, while her mother flicked a needle with a green liquid in it. Her mother stuck it into Mneme's arm, pressing all the substance into her. Instantly Mneme felt the way she did when she was unable to use her powers. "That's going to stop the nanobots from working, and make it so your powers are drained temporarily." Looking down, Mneme saw her father cut her open, starting from the solarplex and ending just below her belly button. Tears from emotion and pain flooded from her eyes.

"Stop! Don't do that!" Mneme pleaded to them. Her parents didn't seem to hear her, though her voice was echoing around the dark room. They put their gloved hands inside her, fingering her insides.

"Interesting—even after her powers are gone, her body remains the same. Look how slow her heart is beating," he mother said. It was only beating about every ten seconds, impossible for a Human.

"It doesn't even look like she needs to breathe—possibly the air is filtered through her skin pores?" he suggested. "It seems possible, and it would be a faster way to get oxygen throughout the body." Then, suddenly, the scene changed. Mneme was chained to the wall, all energy completely drained from her. Her mother was taking extractions of blood from her. Then Mneme was fully clothed, standing next to her parents on a stage. There was a crowd so big that it stretched as far as the eye could see. Her parents had streaks of gray in their hair, and Mneme noticed that she was almost as tall as them—they had aged.

"And, after so many long years of searching," her mother was speaking into a microphone, "since before the Greeks and Romans, we finally have the answer to eternal life!" The crowd applauded, and Mneme's father had his arm around her. In his other hand was a bottle containing a bubbling liquid. It looked like the raspberry soda Pietro had been drinking, but she knew it couldn't be. Behind the three stood even more of the liquid.

Once again the scene changed, but they were only fragments.

Mneme saw tubes coming out of her, extracting more of her blood, which she was regenerating due to her powers.

Then people were drinking the liquid out of bottles with Mneme's picture on it—though she genuinely looked healthy on the picture, she didn't feel it.

Her parents were walking her around a giant house that they no doubt bought with the money they had earned with the "Elixir of Life". Mneme was practically dead—trauma had now settled in, and she was incapable of even walking or talking.

And last, she and her parents were huddling inside Egyptian tombs, the two older adults looking quite scared. Wails and screaming could be heard far off, and Mneme had turned so sickly that her skin was now a pasty gray. "What's going on?" she asked, her voice so hoarse it could hardly be heard.

"Don't you remember?" her mother asked, her voice shaky.

"The elixir gave them powers they couldn't control. We never knew it would break out thirteen years later—the exact time it took for your powers to take over," her father explained, his voice full of fear.

"They haven't found us—the Tombs of Thanatos are too cataclysmic and full of mazes, but I fear they will soon be able to control their powers enough to find us…" her mother fretted. "The Tombs of Thanatos were found only a few years ago, proof that Egyptians and Greeks somehow worked together or partially shared a religion." A large shake brought dust falling all around them, causing her mother to scream. Her father cradled her, not even paying attention to Mneme.

"What went wrong?" Mneme demanded.

"We thought we had singled out your ability to live forever, but we only suppressed the other powers. The powers finally developed and came out of hand—and now there's no way of stopping it. We were never quite sure if we had gotten it right—we had no one to test it on and no way of living forever to see if it really worked…so we never drank it." His voice was shaky, the yells and wails coming closer. "They seek revenge…"

Her mother cried, "If only there were some type of sanctuary left…" Her plea caused her to sob into her husband's shoulder.

Mneme looked at them with hate in her eyes. "_You_ want sanctuary?!" she screamed at them. "You've caused all these people to mutate into something unstoppable! See what happens when you play God?! I WILL GIVE YOU SANCTUARY!" She stood up, kicking the light, and glared at her parents, the small lantern illuminating the ancient walls and inscriptions, also casting an evil shadow on Mneme's face. Her fist was raised to hit her parents, but she stopped and looked at the wall. "_And they shall crumble; forfeit thy darkness and blend into shadow. Plead for peace, but thy will only burst into fire, and peace shan't find them where they travel. Hark! They cry out. Bring thy Heaven to us, but they shall receive none but Hell._" she read off the wall, and then returned her sights to the two pathetic beings before her. "I think they're talking about you. It seems that there isn't a sanctuary where _you_'_re_ going." And she burst her parents into flames, letting their screams echo around her, her evil and satisfied grin soon also consumed by the fire.

Then a voice whispered inside her head, "From fetus, to specimen, to emptiness! Some secrets kill."

Mneme woke up screaming, sweating, heart pounding, and breathing heavily. Pietro shot up. "Where's the fire?!" he screamed out, jumping off the bed and looking around. Seeing there wasn't one, he turned his attention to Mneme, who was still panicking. Her hands were shaking.

"What's going on?!" Jean said, bursting through the door followed by the other students.

"What did you do?!" Cyclops accused, advancing on Pietro.

"Hey, don't you start blaming me before anyone knows what happens!" he retorted.

"You're a little low in the pecking order here to be mouthing off!" Scott yelled back. Then everyone started asking questions, trying to find out what was going on, but with her powers turned off, Mneme's mind was clouded. She was unsure what to do, not able to pinpoint any one voice, so she covered her ears to get away from it all. The look on her parents' face in her dream was exactly the way it had been just before she killed them for real…

The teachers walked into the room, trying to make their way over to Mneme. "ENOUGH!" Storm shouted, holding out her hands and making a loud thunder crackle outside. Everyone quieted down and turned their attention on Mneme, Wolverine doing so after giving Pietro a defiant stare. "Child, tell me what happened." Mneme uncovered her ears to find that there was no ruckus, then looked into Ororo's eyes. Mneme's heart slowed from the calm look in Storm's eyes, and her breathing slowed down to nothing with the help of Pietro gently rubbing her back. After gaining her bearings, Mneme explained her dream—except the voice at the end—mostly to Xavier since she assumed he would figure out why she had it and if it meant anything. The room was silent when she finished, everyone waiting for Xavier's explanation.

After a few seconds of thinking, he stated, "You said that you aged in the dream; that probably means that you dreamt about what would have happened if you didn't kill them the night that you did. You would've clearly trusted your parents and let them experiment on you, only to result in an even more horrible ending for everybody." Mneme looked slightly sad that her parents would never have loved her. All because she was a Mutant. What was wrong with being a Mutant? Was it because Mutants were different, or because Humans were afraid?

"Why did I have the dream? I don't even remember my parents without my powers—well, now I remember my past perfectly clear, but…"

"That may be because you never really forget anything, and when you remember something, you're just uncovering it again." Beast spoke up. Mneme looked at him with a raised eyebrow, waiting for him to elaborate. "Memories are just locked away in your subconscious." That helped, but not much. Mneme turned her collar to the second notch, felt some power flow through her, and looked around the room.

"I'm sorry that I alarmed you, and I thank you for your concern." She stood. "But I have some thinking to do and I should go to the meadow to try out the third notch, so I'll see you in the morning." She snapped her fingers and everyone was returned to their room. She took Pietro's arm and they teleported to the meadow.

He clapped his hands together. "Alright, let's see how powerful that notch will make you!" he said excitedly, rubbing his hands together. Mneme smiled up at him apologetically.

"Sorry, but I don't want you to be in the midst of things if something goes wrong. I really don't want you to get hurt." Mneme said with kind concern. Pietro looked a little downhearted.

"No big deal—the Brotherhood is probably wondering where I've been anyway…" He was about to take off before Mneme tapped him on the shoulder and handed him his clothes. He gave an embarrassed laugh. "Right…" He took his clothes. "Well, uh, good luck with your powers, I guess…" Mneme was about to say something when she felt his lips suddenly lock with hers, sending her a trance unlike anything she had ever experienced before, something indescribable. She closed her eyes to savor the moment, and when she opened them he was gone. Her heart was pounding like never before, and she got a whole new hope of accomplishing her powers. Mneme turned the dial to the third notch and started testing her powers.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

__

Holy crap!

_Dating time!!!_

_I am so sorry for such a late update!_

_A thousand apologies, honestly! I really am sorry!_

_I had a major writer's block, but you don't want to hear my excuses..._

_I made it extra long just to make up for all the chapters I could've written in the time I took for this one..._

_Anyway, if you're even reading this, please leave a review! (Whether it be good or bad...)_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Eighteen**

Her powers were almost just as easy to control as before, but Mneme spent the rest of the night out in the meadow anyway. She felt so confident in herself, all because of a simple action from Pietro. Their first kiss had been even more delightful than she would've ever imagined. It was something magical, exhilarating even. Her whole body was filled with an energy she wasn't familiar with, and it had lasted throughout the night and well into morning. It was sunrise now, and Mneme felt like expressing her joy.

At the breakfast table, the other X-Men students were eating, getting ready for school, when the Professor came through the door. "Nightcrawler, if you don't mind, I'd like you to teleport to the meadow and see if everything is alright with Mneme—she's blocked me from her mind as usual…"

"Sure thing, Professor!" Kurt replied, swiping a bonbon before teleporting out. He ended up at the edge of the flowers, only to Mneme doing some type of tai-chi it looked like. Lights were streaming off with every movement, making her seem so majestic and elegant, as well as powerful and marvelous. After a few moments, Mneme noticed his presence and turned to face him, the light fading from her hands.

"Sorry, I didn't know you were here—I was in my own little world, you could say…" she said to him as she walked up. Mneme tilted her head to the side. "Why haven't you asked Kitty out yet? I would have expected you to the day after she showed her jealousy."

His illusion of pale skin showed a slight blush. "I decided that I really like Amanda. She's a great person and vhat I vas going to do vas wrong…" Mneme's eyebrows turned down, but he just shrugged. "Vell, the Professor vanted me to get you—it's time for school, anyvay." He teleported back to the mansion. Mneme wondered how Kitty was going to take Kurt's decision, but then again, she never knew that he was planning to ask her out anyway. She snapped her fingers and her clothes appeared on her instead of her pajamas. She appeared at the schoolyard, surprised to see Kitty and Lance standing by his jeep. They seemed to be talking cheerily, most especially Kitty. Mneme looked at her a confused look and approached the two when Kitty waved her over.

"Hey, Mneme! What's, like, going on?" she said in a merry tone.

"I'm…doing good." Mneme answered bluntly, giving Lance a short nod of a greeting. "How are you doing?"

Kitty latched onto Lance's arm and gave a girlish shriek before answering, "_We_'_re_ doing great! Lance is taking me out on a date tonight!" She smiled up at him and he grinned down at her…quite tackily. Mneme's heart sank. So…Kitty didn't want to be with Kurt? Or was it just a cover-up for a broken heart? Mneme wasn't willing to find out; she herself was missing her boyfriend. _Where is Pietro, anyway?_ She looked around, but he wasn't in the lot, at the bus ramp, or the yard. It was no big deal; he was probably just off somewhere having fun or relaxing…as usual. It wasn't long before the buses started pulling up and students started getting off. Kurt had hardly taken a step before Amanda was in his arms, cuddling up to him. Mneme looked over at Kitty to see if this bothered her, but she was already walking to the school beside Lance, who was carrying her bag. With a sigh, Mneme followed them, quickly glancing at Scott and Jean stepping out of his car. They all seemed so comfortable around each other, which she supposed was how it was supposed to be, but Mneme always felt worried for Pietro, mostly because of the consequences he was taking: In other words, she was afraid that if Magneto lost her temper before Monday, Pietro would be in big trouble. Of course, she didn't _have_ to wait until Monday, but if she showed up unexpectedly, that would practically be cheating…

Mneme walked through the front doors. _Maybe I should just get it over with_, she told herself. _It'd make my life a whole lot easier, but I'd hate to fight without any honor…not that I did the other seven times I've killed anyone. _Her heart sank at the thought, making her decide that waiting until Monday to fight Magneto was for the best. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of her locker blankly. _How long have I been standing here…?_ Mneme opened up the locker door and got her things for the next couple classes, deep in thought. Well, until something squeezed her butt, making her gasp in alarm and drop her books. She spun around angrily, but no one was there. Raising an eyebrow curiously, she turned back around and squeaked at the sight of Pietro. He was holding her books in one arm and wearing the biggest of grins.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," he said with a laugh. Mneme furrowed her brow disapprovingly, but smiled all the same.

"You pig!" she said, gently punching him in the shoulder. He winced and rubbed what was probably going to be a bruise.

"Right…" He handed the books back to her and glanced around nervously before continuing. "You know, I've been waiting all week for Friday to come around and I was wondering…" Mneme was only listening slightly as she closed her locker and started walking to class, Pietro next to her. "Since it's Friday, and there's no school tomorrow…"

"Spit it out," Mneme urged.

Pietro's face turned red. "Well, I was wondering if you wanted me to take you out on a date tonight…?" he asked her sheepishly; she was the only thing he found intimidating and he was dating her… _That's a contradiction in itself…_ he said to himself with doubt.

Mneme looked up at the ceiling in thought. "Well…" she said slowly, trying to think of an answer. "I guess so." She shrugged. Pietro grinned.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist my charm," he said to her. "I'll pick you up at, um, six—no, seven. And, uh, where something nice." He squished her with a hug and then zoomed off. Mneme looked down the hall where he had disappeared.

"He is the weirdest kid…" she said with a slight hint of wonder in her voice.

Meanwhile, Scott, who had just asked her on a date also, was walking Jean to class. Why were Friday and Saturday the main days for dates? Jean shrugged away the question and agreed—of course. How could she not? Scott was her sweetheart, probably her soulmate. Besides, a date would ease the stress of worrying about Mneme so much. For some reason, she had the worst feeling of dread whenever she saw her with Pietro—worse than she would've ever imagined. It was strange: Although she had an urk about Lance and Kitty, Pietro and Mneme just disturbed her.

"Are you alright?" Scott asked, putting a hand on her shoulder and interrupting her thoughts.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking…" she answered, not really able to look at him while she said it.

He kissed her cheek. "Well, you take care. Don't goof off in class."

She laughed. "Since when have I ever done that?"

He shrugged. "It's possible." Scott waved goodbye and started walking down the hall to his own class. She waved back halfheartedly and entered the classroom.

When lunch finally dragged around, the X-Men and the Brotherhood sat in their usual seats. Kitty couldn't help but squeal to everyone about her date. "I can't wait! I'd bet it's going to be so romantic…" she said dreamily, her eyes distant.

"Man, that dude just doesn't seem like the romantic type." Evan said with a quick glance over at Lance. Kitty pouted, not exactly knowing how to retaliate.

"He may seem like the prosaic type," Mneme intervened, "but you don't know him as well as Kitty. She sees what's on the inside, not the outside."

Scott raised an eyebrow. "What about that time he shoved you up against the lockers and was going to beat you up?"

Kitty's face turned slightly red. "We were, like, in the middle of a battle and—"

"He certainly doesn't take no for an answer," Jean added. "He wouldn't stop pestering and threatening you until you agreed to go out with me."

"That just comes to show how much he really likes me," Kitty tried to convince.

"I don't know…" Amanda said unsurely, sitting next to Kurt.

"Ya, he doesn't exactly seem like the charmer," Kurt said with a slight laugh.

Kitty snorted. "He's definitely a whole lot more romantic than _you_, burger boy!" she retorted.

Kurt looked shocked, but bared his teeth at her angrily. "I'm not the one alvays playing hard-to-get, am I? Nein!" he spat back. The two stood up and leaned over the table, a tension so tight between them, it wouldn't be surprising if static started flashing between their glares. Mneme furrowed her brow and waved her hands, forcing them both into their seats.

They were acting so ridiculous—it was evident that they were angry at each other for going off with another person, and the only reason they would be mad is if they still wanted each other. Mneme was tempted to say it to their faces, but Amanda was sitting there and she didn't want to stir things between her and Kurt. Although she could always make Amanda hear something other than what she was saying… She shook her head, just willing to get to the point. "Although all you can see are his actions, Kitty actually sees his motives," Mneme told Kurt, who was struggling to move. "You can't get angry that you can't see in him what she does." The others looked at her, surprised by the meaning that her simple words actually held. Kurt, not his usual happy-go-lucky self, looked utterly evil as he glared back at her.

"Vhat she sees is fake." he hissed at her, but Mneme was unmoved by his threatening tone.

Amanda hugged him tightly. "Don't be mad. I…I don't like it." she told him, leaning her head on his shoulder. Kurt immediately calmed down and wore a guilty look on his face; he hadn't realized what a scare he was giving everybody. Kitty got up from the table and walked over to where the Brotherhood was sitting.

"You know, Mneme," Jean said hesitantly after Kitty had sat down. "I've been feeling slightly…. Well, I don't think you should be—"

Mneme raised an eyebrow, her eyes showing no amusement. "Don't even get started on Pietro and me," she told her, standing up and following Kitty's path over to where their rivals were. She took a seat next to Pietro, with Kitty on her left next to Lance. Pietro leaned his chair back and put an arm around her.

"I knew you'd come over here, baby," he said with a big grin. "No girl can resist my—" Mneme elbowed him in the gut so he couldn't speak, knocking him and his chair backwards. She caught the back of the chair and pushed it back onto its four legs. "Thanks."

"You dummy. That's not why we came over here." Mneme said bluntly. "They're chastising us with words for dating the 'bad guy'." Pietro looked at her oddly.

"Really?"

"To put it simply." she said. A fly buzzed around the lunch table, making its way over to her. When Todd's tongue shot out to catch it, Mneme grabbed it in her fist, making his eyebrows turn downward at the corners in worry. With a grin, she released it, his tongue pulled back within a fraction of a second. "I see you still remember what happened last time you attacked me," she said almost cheerily. "Don't worry; I won't attack you unless you attack me first."

The day dragged on for all three girls going on dates, each anticipating the end of school. For Mneme, this was a first, so she didn't really know what to expect. Kitty was already debating on what to wear in her spare time of class. Jean, of course, had been on plenty of dates with Scott and wasn't very up to the task on that particular day—after a while, eating at fancy restaurants and such gets a little boring, but she still wanted to go. Mneme looked up at the clock, getting ready for the bell to ring. The seconds ticked down, and she was out the door before the sound even reached anyone else's ears. After a quick stop to her locker, she teleported home and tossed her bag in the corner. She immediately opened up her closet to see what she had for clothing options…which resulted in being not much. Everything she had was mainly Kitty's hand-me-downs, so there was nothing fancy about what she had.

Kitty was driven home by Lance in the Jeep. When she was dropped off in front of the gates, Lance gave her a small kiss on the cheek and drove off. When she phased through the tall front doors, her heart was light as a feather: Not even seeing Kurt with Amanda could put her down. She ran up the stairs and down the hall to her bedroom. As she passed by Mneme's room, she heard a series of rattling and scratching noises. Curious, she raised a hand to knock on the door, but not before Mneme called out, "Come in!" Kitty entered the room, only to see needles and color-changing thread flying everywhere, so much thread, in fact, that it was difficult to see across the room.

"What's going on?" she asked. Faintly she could see Mneme standing in front of the vanity, studying herself in the mirror. After a few seconds, all the thread gathered around her, guided by the needles, forming a blue and purple slinky dress with a split up the side. It was extremely pretty, but after viewing herself in the mirror, the threads separated in a burst and started flying around the room again, changing colors once more. Then Kitty figured it out. "Pietro is taking you on a date, isn't he?" she said with a beam. The threads wrapped around her again, forming a silky strapless dress that ended above the knee, a red wine color. It hugged her curves very nicely.

"Yes, Pietro is planning to take me out on a date," she finally answered, examining the backside of her body. "He said to wear something nice, but I can't quite decide on a dress." Another time the threads flew around the room, but quickly reassembled around Mneme's body in a heliotrope purple, crossover bodice dress. It wrapped around her neck, flowing down in an X-shape to cover her chest, exposing her belly, hanging loosely off her hips, then wrapped tightly around her bottom and pelvic area. Kitty's eyes widened at how beautiful and flattering it looked. "I think I'll stay with this one," Mneme decided, stepping into some matching heels that magically appeared on the floor. The needles, now having fulfilled their duty, rained down on the bed like a flurry of arrows and stuck themselves in the cushioning. "You're going on a date, aren't you?" Mneme asked her. "I could make a dress for you—"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" she squealed, phasing through the wall and coming back a few seconds later with armfuls of magazines. She spread them out on the floor and opened then to pages with the corners folded down. Certain dresses and other clothing items were circled. "Can you make me this dress?" she asked, pointing at a salmon colored gown. Mneme raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you think that's a little…overdoing it?" she asked. The gown was full of sparkles and feathery things, and the skirt of it dragged on the floor. "What about that one?" she asked, pointing to a Persian red dress with a tight bodice and pleated skirt. When Kitty looked at it doubtfully, Mneme added, "I know it'll look good—trust me."

Kitty gathered her magazines together and placed them on the dresser. "If you say so…" Almost instantly her clothes floated off of her and more thread from Mneme's dresser shot out, tying themselves to the needles. Then they started interlacing and making the dress. Within a few seconds, the dress was completely finished without a flaw, complete with shoes and necklace. Kitty looked down at herself and did not look impressed with her figure. She lifted up the hem and saw bloomers. "What are those for?"

"In case you decide to dance—the skirt to that dress is very springy because of the pleats," she explained. Kitty shrugged and walked in front of the mirror. She smiled widely at what she saw and looked at her figure.

"Hey! I look, like, great! Wow, Lance is going to be, like, so freaked out when he sees me." She was so ecstatic by how she looked that a million thoughts ran through her head before she got an idea. "If you can make dresses, can you do manicures too?" Mneme shrugged uncertainly.

"I suppose so—it shouldn't be that hard." Mneme waved her hand and the needles went back into her dresser drawer. "You can sit down on the bed."

Jean and Scott had stopped by a fast-food restaurant to pick up a soda for Jean and a coffee for Scott. Once they were back at the mansion, Jean was on her way to Mneme's room to apologize for how she had acted earlier. The door opened before she could knock, revealing a shiny bathroom tiles and bubbling waters in the two large tubs. "What did you do to your room?!" she asked in horror. Mneme and Kitty were sitting in separate bathtubs with their feet dangling over the edge and cucumbers on their eyes. Files were floating about, fixing their finger- and toenails.

"We're getting ready for our dates," Kitty said simply. Mneme snapped her fingers and another bubbling tub appeared.

"Just get in the tub."

"What? There's no way I'm going to do that!"

It only took a few seconds before Jean was relaxing in the bubbling water and getting her nails done. When they were done being preened and getting their hair done, Mneme couldn't deny making a dress for Jean. After a few different styles, Jean finally decided on a long, V-neck, black silk dress. It looked extremely nice on her tall, thin figure. Kitty used various shades of pink eyeshadow, while Jean used only natural colors. Mneme used black eyeliner to draw overlapping semicircles curling downward toward her cheekbones and colored them in with various shades of lavenders and bright purple.

With all the fun they were having, the girls easily lost track of the time. Before they knew it, seven o'clock had rolled around and the two younger of the three rushed down the stairs and waited at the front door, looking forward to the doorbell to ring. It wasn't long after before Lance arrived in a tuxedo along with Pietro, who was also dressed up nicely. "Good evening, ladies," he said with a bow, then straightened up and angled his arm for Mneme to take hold of it.

"You look great," Lance said to Kitty, taking her hand and leading her down the steps to the jeep. He opened the door for her and she stepped up and buckled in. After Lance got in and drove off, Pietro looked down at Mneme.

"What?" she asked, laughing at his goofy smile.

"You just look really beautiful," he answered. Before Mneme could thank him, he had scooped her up in his arms and they appeared in front of a big restaurant in about thirty seconds. "Five star restaurant Le Veronique. Best French restaurant by far." Mneme looked at the bright neon lights and traffic behind them in the streets.

"We left Bayville?" she asked. He nodded. "I suppose going to the next city over isn't so bad…" Pietro put his arm around her waist and walked through the open glass doors and up to the podium. A man that was dressed in a pitch-black suit was standing behind it, looking over the reservation list.

Pietro pulled Mneme a little closer. "Pietro Maximoff, reserved table for two at seven O-five," he told him. The man looked down at him.

"Aren't you a little young to be making a reservation?" he asked skeptically in his heavy French accent.

"I've already made the reservation, so let me pass before I tie your arms and legs together like a pretzel." Pietro threatened with an evil grin. The man narrowed his eyes, but guided them through the next door all the same. There were so many tables set up and the drone of hundreds of voices buzzed around them. A crystal chandelier was hung high above them, illuminating not only the fine tile and tables but also the intricate paintings on the ceiling. Across the room to the right was a long balcony, as well as one on the left. They were escorted around to an empty table on the stone veranda, overlooking the beautiful city.

"'Ere are your menus, monsieur," he said, then left them to decide on their food. Mneme opened it up. It had three sections (le petit déjeuner, le déjeuner, and le dîner) on the inside and desserts and beverages on the back.

Mneme asked, "Have you ever eaten here before?"

"Nah. I had this reservation made three months ago, and the earliest opening was tonight. I was just going to eat here on my own, but I called yesterday to change it for two. Things worked out though," he said with a grin. "What are you ordering?" She looked up.

"I think I'll have the basil salmon terrine," she told him. "What about you?" He shrugged in response, leaning his cheek on his hand and dreamily staring at her. "You haven't even opened your menu," Mneme pointed out. Pietro leaned back in the spindly chair and flipped open the menu, still not taking his eyes off her. "Why don't you even look at what they're serving?"

He grinned. "You're too beautiful to _not _look at. It's your fault for being so damn pretty." Mneme rolled her eyes and continued to look at the menu. She had a feeling that foie gras would probably be more of Pietro's taste. A young woman dressed in what looked like a French maid's outfit walked up with a pen and paper.

"And what drinks can a get I get for the 'appy couple?" she asked in her dainty voice.

"We'll have some of your best wine."

The girl looked slightly taken aback. "I'm sorry, but you two aren't old enough to 'ave any alcho'ol." She told Pietro.

"We'll just have water, then." Mneme said with a smile. Pietro looked really angry, but didn't say anything as the waitress walked away. "Don't worry; I can just turn the water into wine. It's simple," she assured. Pietro seemed to lighten up a little, but still gave the waitress a glare as she made her way to the kitchen.

He drummed his fingers on the table and continued to stare at Mneme. "You look so pretty. I wouldn't have thought that I'd ever end up with you." Mneme raised an eyebrow.

"Why not? You're good-looking."

"Good-looking?!" Pietro exclaimed as if it were absurd. "I'm sexy!" he corrected, slicking his hair back.

Mneme shook her head disapprovingly. "Alright, have it your way. I just want to know why you thought you'd never be with me."

"Oh, that. Just because you used to be the one I was trying to get you to join, and now were on opposite teams and stuff. I thought that'd just keep us apart…" His voice tailed off in a sad note, but their conversation took off onto random subjects that kept them laughing.

* * *

Lance pulled into the parking lot of a fancy Japanese steakhouse called Sakura. As the couple walked in arm in arm, two pretty Asian girls in kimonos greeted them. Paper lanterns dimly lighted the restaurant and low Japanese style tables were placed all around. One of the women in a kimono escorted them across the room and opened a sliding door for them. The next room had higher tables and chairs, and on either side of the room were two bars where the chefs were flipping fish and making sushi. The bamboo walls and floor set a peaceful mood, as did the cultural music. Lance looked down at her. "Would you rather eat or dance first?" Kitty beamed.

"I'll dance—if you want to."

"I'm not much of a dancer, but I know you are, so I'll just watch…" He continued across the room and went through another slide, putting them in a dark hallway. Black lights were hung over two doors, illuminated the men's restroom and women's restroom. As they walked on, the base to a song could be faintly heard through the walls. "This place is a club and a restaurant, but for some reason it's still required that you dress nicely to get in."

"You look good in a tux."

"Nah, it's not even mine. You look really good though. I don't think you can get any prettier than how you look now," he complimented. They got to the end of the hallway and Lance opened the door to reveal a vast, dark room with lots of neon, strobe, and black lights shifting around the room. A DJ was in a separate room mixing J-Pop music and lots of people were dancing. "I'll go sit on the bench over there—"

"No you won't!" Kitty commanded, pulling him onto the dance floor. "C'mon and dance with me!" Kitty made her way to the center of the floor and got to feeling the rhythm of the beat. Although she couldn't understand the words to the song, she liked the music and was easily able to move her body to the beat. Lance felt a little awkward since he didn't really know how to dance, so he just stood there uneasily. Kitty stopped when she noticed, then grabbed his arms and wrapped them around her waist. "Just look at other people and see what they're doing, then just do it in your own style." It took a little time for Lance to actually do anything, and even longer for him to get into the groove, but eventually they were both dancing exceptionally well.

* * *

Jean sat shotgun in the car while Scott was driving them. He wouldn't tell her where exactly they were going, trying to keep it a surprise, but the truth was Scott had taken her to every restaurant there was in Bayville. Getting bored with dull conversation, she fell asleep on the way there.

Jean opened her eyes tiredly. She stretched her arms above her head to wake herself up and looked at her surroundings. Scott had parked the car—and all around were other cars in a jammed parking lot. He was standing next to her with the door open. "I was going to wake you, but I guess you're already up."

She sighed. "Scott, where are we? If you don't tell me, I'll just read your mind," Jean told him, stepping out of the car in her leather boots. Scott locked the car up and pulled two rectangular papers out of his suit pocket. Jean studied them before realizing what it actually was. "You didn't—how did you—Scott, where did you get those?!" she exclaimed. He grinned at her.

"I knew you were getting tired of those boring nights out at fancy restaurants, so I decided to get you these concert tickets—I know they're your favorite band." He gave her one of the tickets, but Jean's face fell.

"Do you think I'm overdressed?" she asked, noticing that Scott was just wearing his normal clothes. He shook his head.

"You look like you're going to a concert." Scott said with a shrug, talking about her black clothing. Jean jumped up and hugged him around the neck thankfully. They walked over to the dome stadium and stood in line. After maybe forty-five minutes, they were inside the stadium and standing among the crowd. Jean knew it was going to be a night to remember.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

_Well, it's been a while..._

_Sorry for the late update!!!_

_SUPER LONG CHAPTER!!!_

_For the few of you who still read this dumb story,_

_it's not getting any better, so don't get your hopes up._

_Actually, this chapter is really boring, so you don't even have to read it._

_For those of you who are waiting for my drawings of Mneme and the gang and Pietro, I'm still working on them, so don't lose faith in me yet!_

_This is mostly for bloodlushes because I have Pyro in here and she'd have a freak show if I didn't make it up to her._

_Yeah, she has a "thing" for Pyro... It's probably that Australian accent! X3 Just kidding, Chelsi. I know you like him for his body._

_Okay, I'll stop! I'm sorry, but I had to joke around a bit. Just get on to reading the story... XD_

_And I'm sorry that this chapter has to be so gay, even without any homos in it..._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Nineteen**

Mneme took a deep breath and wiped a tear from her eye; she had been laughing so hard that she almost started crying. "And you actually told that to Mystique's face?" she said in disbelief. She knew that Pietro had a big ego, but she wasn't too sure if he had the gall to insult Mystique to her face…

"Of course I did! I called her a conniving—"

"Here is your food, Monsieur," their waitress said carrying two shiny silver platters. She sat each of them in front of the customers and pulled off the covers. Pietro looked down at the brown chunk of meat smothered in yellow sauce and placed on spring onions. Mneme's basil salmon terrine looked extremely appetizing, so she picked up one of the many forks and started digging in with an elegant fashion. Hesitantly Pietro took a small bite of the foie gras and moved it around his mouth. Mneme closed her eyes to savor the taste of the delicious food, and when she opened her eyes again, Pietro's food had been completely devoured. She laughed.

"You certainly are fast!" she said to him. "It's a good thing you like duck liver, or else you wouldn't be able to eat one bit of that foie gras," Mneme told him with a smile, but his face fell.

After swallowing down some regurgitation, he said, "Liver?" He smoothed back his hair nervously. "I usually throw up just at the sight of it…" Of course, he hadn't known that foie gras was made of duck liver, but it had tasted so good that he had consumed it within a second.

"So…Mystique stopped by and you just told her off and you're still in charge?" Mneme asked, getting back to the subject. Pietro grinned and nodded. She looked at Pietro's empty glass and refilled it with wine—it had originally been water, but changing liquids was all too easy for her. The deep red color was quickly drained from its holder and Mneme continued their conversation. "So, you know that I haven't been on any dates, but how many have you been on?"

Pietro laughed hysterically, holding off a few more seconds before answering. "I've been on WAY more than you can count—well, maybe not you, but way more than I can count." He paused to see her reaction, but she seemed as happy as ever. "You're okay with me talking about dating other girls?" Mneme shrugged.

"What's so bad about it?"

"Nothing," Pietro said quickly. "I mean, only a seriously tolerant girl puts up with that, but I do have a few funny stories about a few dates I've been on. Let me tell you about my first time arranging a date over the Internet…" Mneme listened intently as Pietro started explaining the sight he was on and how he and a really hot girl had hit it off instantly over messaging. "So I set us up a date and we were supposed to meet at some spot I don't even remember." He was talking so fast that any normal person wouldn't be able to understand. "So after about three dates with other girls, it was almost time to meet her in person. I thought I'd just show up and make it seem like I'd been waiting for her…. When I showed up at the place, I asked this girl—way to scary to even describe—if a girl named Patricia had stopped by. When she told me it was her, I had to make up something fast, because she looked nothing like her Internet picture."

Mneme's eyes grew wide with curiosity. "What did you do?"

"Well, first I ran like hell, but she had gotten a clear view of my face and it was no doubt that she would try to find me again…. So I ran back to the house and grabbed Toad. This was when Mystique was still running the joint—you know how she seldom came to check on her house and I got to take over—and she was so mad that I had just taken Toad by the collar like that. I swear she hates me just because of my father, but that's beside the point. Anyway, I threw Toad in her arms and she started smothering him. After I heard, 'You're even cuter than your picture!'," he imitated, using a not-so-pretty voice, "I ran back. I mean, I know Toad couldn't be hotter than me, so I knew that girl needed to get her sight checked, which meant I had nothing to worry about. Mystique was real mad, but it wasn't long before she realized that I didn't care what she thought." Pietro crossed his arms as a conclusion to his story, but Mneme wasn't satisfied.

"So what happened to Toad?"

Pietro thought for a moment. "He didn't come back until two or three days later, and he won't speak a word of what happened to him, so I'm guessing she had his way with him." He started laughing, but Mneme wasn't listening to him; her ears were taking in the sweet sound of orchestra. He raised an eyebrow curiously, a grin playing on his eager face. "Do you tango?"

Mneme turned to him, her mind overwhelmed by the music. "Tango? I'm sure I could learn faster than anyone in the history of Humans or Mutants," she assured, finishing up the last bit of her food and taking Pietro's outstretched hand. He led her to the open dance floor where more people were gathering, intrigued by this classic song and dance. Pietro pulled Mneme to the center of the floor put an arm around her waist after placing her hand on his shoulder. As the music became more intense, people were moving in step. She closely studied the movements of others and her brain quickly comprehended the moves, quite simple in her opinion.

"Are you ready?" he asked her, a hint of a challenge in his voice. Mneme nodded and intertwined their other hands, stepping out to the four-beat tune. The moves came naturally to the two as they slid across through the couples. Mneme spun out, spun in, and was easily led by Pietro. With her back pressed against him, the two crossed their feet over, then she was twirled under his arm. Her dress swirled about her before they resumed their stance and swiftly went across the floor, Pietro lowering her into a low dip. With their noses almost touching, it was hard to avoid locking her eyes with his, and Mneme couldn't force herself to look away. She anticipated for the kiss to come as he moved in closer, but suddenly she felt the presence of someone unwelcome. Mneme pushed him back, forcing them both up, and looked towards the balcony. Pietro followed her gaze, but saw nothing. "What is it?" he asked, following her to the balcony's edge. She jumped up on the stone and looked around, ignoring the hurt expression Pietro had. When she didn't answer, he continued, "If you didn't want to kiss me, you could've just told me—"

"Pietro, you have to get out of here!" she told him frantically. "If he sees you here, you'll be found out for sure!"

"Who?" Pietro asked. "My father?"

Mneme shook her head and narrowed her eyes to get a clearer view. He was miles off, but she picked up the sound of roaring fires and maniacal laughter. "It's—it's Pyro." She tilted her head to the side and Pietro groaned.

"Of all people and times, why does it have to be him, and why does it have to be _now_?" he asked miserably.

Mneme looked at him indifferently. "If you don't get out of here soon, he'll see you and tell Magneto all about our date! Just get out of here!"

"I'm not going to just leave you here—"

"Don't be noble! If you don't get yourself out, I'll teleport you straight to—" She spun around and caught a giant fireball in her grasp, resulting in multiple people screaming behind and below her. Mneme crushed it in her hands, smoke trailing up from them. She looked down to see Pyro—and Pietro. Mneme sighed in despair: Did men _ever_ listen? She jumped down from the balcony, holding her dress down, and landed on her high heels. Streams of fire chased Pietro around, but they were no match for his speed. Pyro took notice of her and extinguished the flames, making Pietro stop in his tracks. Mneme walked up to him and narrowed her eyes. "Can't you just listen to what I say?!" she yelled at him, poking her finger into his chest with every word.

"What are you talking about? I'm getting rid of this douche so we can get on with our d—" Mneme covered his mouth so he couldn't blurt out the rest.

"Can't you get a clue? I can take care of myself and you're not even supposed to be with—"

_Slap!_

Pietro rubbed his stinging face. "What was _that_ for?!" he demanded.

"You just pinched my butt while I was trying to tell you something!"

"That wasn't me!" he yelled in defense.

Mneme's face fell. "It wasn't?" She turned her head to see Pyro standing over her. "Do you mind?! I'm trying to scold someone here!" He grinned down at her.

"Aren't you a feisty one?" he said in a strong Australian accent. Mneme's face fell, clearly unimpressed by his statement. "I suppose you'll be the one I'm after?" he asked, a toothy grin playing on his face. "It's a shame such a pretty thing like yourself has to go to waste…"

"Listen, John, are you here to flirt with me, or are you here to attack me?" Mneme asked, trying to get to the point. "Because I'm getting tired of Magneto's employees interrupting my life." Mneme crossed her arms and started tapping her foot impatiently, but Pyro kept grinning down at her.

"You even know my name, mate! That's something, right there…" His orange hair was rustled in the slight wind. There were no people in the streets by now, but with such commotion news crews were bound to show up by some time…

Pietro stepped in front of Mneme and gave John a challenging stare. "That's _my_ girl, and don't you dare hit on her!" he demanded, pushing Pyro back. The older boy laughed at him.

"Magneto had a feeling that you were disobeying him—of course, he never believed for a minute that you were trying to get Mneme to join our side. You were always too competitive. You just had to be with the girls that no one else could date, and you went on about five dates every day… But you had that problem where you just couldn't stay with one girl." Pietro's face turned red and he glanced at Mneme nervously; he didn't want her to think that he wouldn't be able to stay with her… "It was always because you wanted to move too fast, and within the first day it was over…" Pyro recalled aloud. Pietro covered his face in embarrassment. He couldn't deny that what Pyro was saying was true, but Mneme only laughed.

"At least he could get a girl! Girls left you because you were so psycho that you wanted to see them on fire—and after word spread no girl would even come near you, so you moved to the States." Mneme put her hands on her hips, pleased with John's upset reaction. Almost instantly fire was consuming Pietro and Mneme, dissipating after a few seconds. The two reappeared unharmed, Mneme's eyebrow raised and a small smile showing.

"What the—?"

"Don't you know _anything_?" Pietro asked, as if it were obvious. "Mneme can outdo anyone with any power: You don't stand a chance." Pyro cooled down and grinned back.

"It's a shame; I'm sure she'd look beautiful covered in flames," he shot back, directing another flame at them, but Mneme thrust out her hand and it changed course, heading straight for John. They diminished right before hitting him, sparing his life. A fear washed over him: That was the first time he had lost control of a fire—how was he supposed to compete against someone who had more control?

Her brows knitted together. "You want to see me burn?" Her skin and hair burst into flames, the combustion trembling in the wind. "I'm living fire, so how do you expect that to work?" she challenged, but Pyro wasn't hearing any of the words she said. His eyes were glued to the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen—he had never known fire could take a shape so precise. Every feature was clearly visible on her, exceeding any of his replicas he'd ever tried to make of a living being.

Pietro looked back and forth at the two, not liking one bit the way Pyro was looking at her. He sped over to him and waved his hand in front of John's face, but his eyes didn't move. Pietro grunted and smashed the back of his head. Pyro showed no reaction, so Pietro took his forearm and smashed the back of his neck, knocking Pyro out. He toppled to the ground unconscious. At that moment a news van pulled up in the road, and Mneme took Pietro's arm.

"I swiped everyone's memory clean—but we'd better take him and get out of here," she said lowly, indicating to the news crew getting out of the van. Her body was returned to normal, and Pyro was teleported to the top of one of the surrounding buildings. Pietro swept Mneme's legs out from under her and zoomed through the city, then ended up in the meadow that they had spent so many times in. The moon illuminated every moonflower petal, a white blanket of flora that was cast upon a field. Before Mneme knew it, she was leaning backwards with her arms wrapped around Pietro's neck, leg hooked on his hip, and they were back in the same position they were in when they had stopped dancing.

"Now…where did we leave off?" he asked her, moving in for the kiss, his hand moving up her thigh.

* * *

After about an hour of close dancing, Kitty finally decided that she would experience the second half of the date. As Lance lead her back through the bamboo rooms, something—or rather someone—caught Kitty's eye as they sat at one of the high tables. _Is that…Kurt?!_ she asked herself, but soon enough the sight of Amanda confirmed her hunch. Kitty and Lance opened up their menus and looked at the list of food, but that wasn't Kitty's main interest. She kept glancing over the tables and at Kurt and Amanda. They were sitting a few tables over, laughing and talking.

"Do you like sushi?" Lance asked her.

"What? Oh, sure. I love sushi." Kitty replied without much enthusiasm. She glanced back over at Kurt and Amanda before fully looking at Lance.

"So, do you want me to just order the sushi boat for the both of us?" he asked her.

"Sounds good to me," she answered with a reassuring smile. "I didn't know you liked foreign foods."

Lance shrugged. "As long as my stomach can keep it down, it's alright with me. Honestly, I haven't tried sushi before."

"Oh." Kitty wasn't in a very talkative mood, which was odd to Lance. She usually talked a whole bunch. In fact, she usually talked so much that Lance hardly had to talk at all for it to be a conversation.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, but the waitress came up so Kitty didn't have to answer.

"What can I get you two tonight?" she asked. Her kimono had intricate designs and the sleeves trailed the floor. Her coarse black hair was pulled back tightly into a bun and two chopsticks held it in place. Lance told her their order, so Kitty used this chance to steal a look at Kurt and Amanda again. Their food was served now, and Amanda used her chopsticks to put a piece of sushi in Kurt's mouth. Their smiling faces hurt her deep down inside, like her heart was literally being torn in two. Kitty blinked back the tears that were gathering and looked down to hide her sad expression and trembling lips: Kurt, the one she had always loved for so long, the one she was so sure they were going to be together, the one that she would never admit she had feelings for, was now with another girl.

"How was it so far?" Lance asked her. Kitty looked up abruptly, trying to hide her expression.

"It's great—I'm having, like, the best time of my life!" she said happily.

Lance rubbed the back of his neck unsurely. "You just seem a little put down, that's all…"

Kitty bit her lip; she hadn't expected Lance to notice. "I'm just, like, a little tired," she lied. "A couple hours of fast dancing can do that," she added with a small smile. A few seconds later, the waitress returned to their table with sushi arranged on a long wooden dragon boat.

"That was fast," Lance said lowly.

"Well, let's dig in!" Kitty said, forcing herself to sound ecstatic. She took the porcelain chopsticks and picked up a wrap of sushi. She popped it into her mouth and savored the flavor of the raw tuna and rice. Lance tried to hold the chopsticks correctly, but they kept slipping out of his grasp. Kitty looked over at Kurt and saw him looking back. Her heart skipped a beat before she was able to look away. "Let me help you," she told Lance, hopping off the chair and walking over to his side of the table. She took his hand and placed the chopsticks correctly, then showed him how to pick things up. He quickly got the hang of it and Kitty returned to her seat.

The two got into a pleasant conversation and Kitty's mind was soon blocked of Kurt. When they reached both reached for the same piece, Kitty phased her chopsticks through Lance's and grabbed it, almost putting in her mouth before she thought otherwise. Lance was about to put the last piece in his mouth when Kitty leaned over the table and put her piece of sushi in. After Lance swallowed, they both gave a small laugh. Lance lifted the last piece up to his mouth, but decided to let Kitty have it instead. So he placed it in her open mouth while she was still laughing. Surprised, she gasped and started coughing. Lance hurried over to her side of the table. "Are you okay?!" Kitty shook her head—it was clear that she was choking. Her face was quickly turning deep shades of red, so Lance had to do something fast. He picked her up off her seat and held his forearms around her waist, pushing up underneath her ribs. The piece of sushi went flying across the room and landed on Kurt's table, but Lance didn't even notice. His main focus was on Kitty, who seemed a little woozy. He sat her back up on her seat and held her steady.

"Are you two alright?" the waitress asked. Lance nodded. "Here's your bill, then," she said, placing it on the table. Lance took out his wallet and pulled out some money, placing it in the book.

Amanda saw the wet piece of sushi splat on the table and looked at from where it had been projected. When she saw Kitty, she knew it had to have been a mistake. She nudged Kurt and pointed over at the other two, then the couple stood and walked over to the table, taking a seat. "Kurt, what are _you_ doing here?" Kitty asked hoarsely, purposely being rude. He shrank back, not too sure how to react.

"How are you, Kitty?" Amanda asked. She looked pretty in her black silk dress, but Kitty just held her head higher and pretended not to hear. Lance glanced at them with confusion, wondering what they had against each other.

"Isn't this a coincidence?" Kitty snarled, mainly directed at Kurt; she was still upset that he was going out with Amanda.

"Yes," Kurt laughed nervously, cringing at the burning in Kitty's eyes. "Vhat a coincidence…" He turned away from Kitty and looked at Lance, ducking his head almost submissively. "So how is your night going so far?"

"It's—"

"It couldn't get _any better_," Kitty interjected stiffly. Lance raised an eyebrow, noticing that this was going to turn into a nasty quarrel. "I was just wondering the same thing about your night, _Kurt_." She said the name with a significant vengeance.

Amanda tilted her head to the side. "Is everything alright, Kitty?"

"Everything is fine," Lance blurted. "In fact, we were just leaving," Lance said before Kitty could retort anything rash. He walked around the table and took Kitty's hand, leading her through the first room and out of the restaurant. He took her by his jeep and looked her deeply in the eyes. "What's going on with you and him?" he asked, not angry, but not exactly happy either. Kitty held his gaze for a few moments before turning away; she couldn't tell him that she still had feeling for Kurt, the feelings she had denied for so long. Lance took his hands off her shoulders and immediately understood, then opened the door for her. They were soon driving off down the road, Kitty leaning on her hand and few tears dripping down her cheeks.

Kitty lifted her head when they arrived at the Xavier Institute gates, but Lance didn't stop. Kitty sniffled and cleared her throat. "Lance, you passed it," she managed to say clearly. He didn't answer. "If you're going to be mad at me, just leave me at home, okay? I don't want to go to your house just to start arguing." Lance kept focused on the road. "Take me home, Lance!" she yelled at him, tears now flowing freely down her face.

"Just let me take you to my favorite spot in the whole city—then I'll take you home, I promise," he told her, affection leaking out in his voice. Kitty looked taken aback: She wasn't expecting him to try to comfort her. She sat back in her seat ashamedly, not sure what to think. Kurt had always been there for her—but Lance was winning her heart now…. She was so confused; she didn't know what to do. Was she going to have to choose between the two of them?

They turned down an old dirt road that looked like it hadn't been used for quite some time. Limbs crowded the road, as did underbrush. There were a few minutes of silence, what seemed like ages, before the forest opened up into a clearing. Kitty had fallen asleep despite the bumpiness of the road, so Lance, parked his jeep and took her out of the seat. He set her on the quiet shore of the lake and walked back to the vehicle. Kitty's eyes blinked open at the sound of a familiar song. She sat up and looked out at the lake before her, so still that it cast a perfect reflection of the moon upon its surface. Lance walked back to her after putting in one of his mix CDs and sat next to her. "I never thought that it could feel this bad…" she told him sadly. "This must be exactly how Kurt felt every time I refused to go on a date with him…" Lance didn't answer. Tears dripped down onto her dress, but Lance reached over and wiped a few from her face.

"I don't like it when you cry, so please don't." he said to her, taking her arm and lifting her up.

"But how am I ever supposed to choose between you and Kurt?" she said, her voice trembling like a frosted leaf in fall. Her head declined in shame.

Lance lifted her face up toward the moonlight, a soft glow forming. "You don't have to. Just tell Kurt how you feel and he's bound to understand." A lump formed in Kitty's throat. She never thought that Lance would have been so considerate. She hugged him tightly and buried her face in his chest.

"How could you be so nice to me, even after you know how I feel about Kurt?" she sobbed, her voice muffled.

"Are you kidding me? I'm with you. I've got to be the luckiest man in the world." Lance said, hugging her back. "Now, can I have one last dance before…before you're Kurt's?" Kitty looked up at him and smiled as he wiped her last few tears away.

* * *

Jean and Scott were having a great time dancing in the crowd and singing along with the bands. Lights of all colors flashed around them, and the best part was that, unlike at the school, no one looked at them or criticized them for being Mutants. If anybody in that crowd knew or even remembered them from the news, they didn't say anything. "Oh, Scott, this is great!" Jean exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck. When she realized what she was doing, Jean quickly let go and shuffled her feet in embarrassment, both their faces red. When the song stopped, Scott looked up at the stage. The bands were switching off, so he looked down at the pamphlet that showed who would be playing next.

"Oh…"

"What is it?" Jean asked, looking at the paper. "Oh…it's the Red Hearts playing next…"

"Yeah…" Scott rubbed his neck. "I don't really like that band."

"Me neither." Jean agreed. She tried to think of something that they could do to pass the time. "Do you want to go get a bite to eat at the food court here?" she suggested.

Scott nodded. "Yeah, that sounds good." He followed her over to the exit and down the hall. At the end was a tiled area with several concession stands and multiple tables. Only a few people were there, and their voices were very hushed. "I'll go get our food if you want," he offered.

"Thanks," she said, then went to go get a table. After she sat down, she looked around her. Her eyes fell on a familiar jacket and head of blonde hair, but it quickly disappeared behind down the hallway. Jean furrowed her brow skeptically—for some reason it looked like Duncan had been trying to avoid her sight. She was just about to get up and follow him when Scott came back with two plates of waffles.

He sat across from her. "Sorry, it was the only thing they didn't have smothered in grease…" Scott shrugged.

"It's fine," she assured, taking her fork and knife and cutting the waffles. She took a bite and ended up spitting it all over the table. "These things taste like paper!" she shouted angrily, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. Scott took one look at his and pushed them away.

"I'll take your word for it…" He took the paper out again. "After the Red Hearts, it's Candy Brittle, then The Medusas." Jean grimaced; she didn't particularly like any of those bands, but she knew Scott really liked The Medusas. "I don't mind waiting a few hours to see the last band, but if you want to leave now—"

"No, no, it's okay. I can wait…" Her voice trailed off as she took notice of one of the bouncers coming their way. "On second thought, we'd better leave."

"Why?"

"I think Duncan tipped them off that we're Mutants," Jean said, getting up and pointing toward the heavyset man dressed in black. Scott's face fell.

"Yeah, let's go," he confirmed. The two walked over to the hall, Jean halting the bouncer in his tracks. Once they got out of the concert hall and into the parking lot, they hurried over to Scott's car and jumped inside. It wasn't long before they were on the main road and coming up to a four-way. The light was just turning yellow as Scott passed through it. "So, did you have fun?"

"I had a great time! That's probably more fun than I've ever had with Duncan," she told him.

"Oh…" Scott said, thinking that what she said was extremely revealing. "Was he really that bad?"

"Yes—wait, are you talking about—?" Her jaw dropped. "I didn't have sex with him! Are you _crazy_?!" she demanded in disbelief. "You honestly think that lowly of me?!"

"What? No! I would never—I didn't—wait, don't take it that way!" Scott said frantically, trying to explain to her, but there wasn't much to explain…

"Scott, the road!" Jean yelled, grabbing the steering wheel that he had foolishly let go of. The car swerved off the road, narrowly missing a large SUV. Jean's grip slipped and her elbow hit Scott's seatbelt latch, unbuckling him. They hit a bump and Scott flew up and into the backseat. Jean tried to steer, but the terrain was too bumpy for such a fragile sports car. She screamed as the forest came closer and closer, but she was able to stop the car with her powers, inches away from hitting a tree. Scott tumbled out of the car and flopped on the grass, his heart pounding. Jean was just glad they were alive, but her breathing was still quite heavy. "That was a little too close."

Suddenly a cop car with its siren blaring pulled up next to them. As the police officer got out, Scott buried his face into the ground glumly. "Which one of you is the driver of this vehicle?" he said gruffly. Scott raised his hand from the ground. "May I see your driver's license?" he asked, even though it sounded more like a demand. Scott dug his wallet out of his pocket and handed it to the cop. After he threw it back to Scott—or more like on Scott—the officer said, "No need to explain I saw the whole thing. Reckless driving, running a red light…" He wrote all this down in his ticket book.

"What?! I didn't run a red light!" Scott protested, lifting his head out of the dirt.

"The hell you didn't! I saw you with my own two eyes!"

"But officer, he didn't—"

"Don't you try to stand up for your boyfriend, missy," he said to her.

"Boyfriend?!" Jean said in incredulity, her face turning red. The officer took a soda can out of the cup holder.

"And underage drinking…" he said shaking his head and writing it down.

"But that's a coke can—"

"And drugs?! I'm going to have to take this back for testing then."

"What? No! That's not what I meant!"

He walked back over to his car, dropping the ticket on Scott. The policeman drove off, leaving them alone. Scott stood, holding the ticket and slumping his shoulders. He opened the car door and strapped himself in. He drove his car back onto the road, not letting go of the ticket for anything. He crushed it in his hand, even up to the point where he pulled up to the Xavier Institute. He left his car running in front of the fountain, feeling like it was the worst day of his life. It was a few moments before he decided what to do, but he felt like repeatedly smashing his head against the steering wheel. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" he told himself over and over as he slammed his forehead.

"Scott! Scott, stop it!" Jean said, holding him against the seat. Scott was feeling a bit too comfortable being forced back by Jean, so, disgusted with himself, he got out of the car and ran his hand through his hair.

"Did you see how much that ticket was worth, Jean? The Professor isn't going to pay for that…" Scott sighed, knowing that Jean must think that he's an idiot. She walked over to him and sat next to him on the edge of the fountain.

"It's okay."

"No it's not. Where am I going to get that kind of money?"

"No, just look." Scott looked up at her. She was holding some kind of booklet.

"The ticket book! Jean, I could—I could honestly kiss you right now," he told her, grabbing her shoulders and staring into her emerald eyes.

Jean waited a few moments, but when nothing happened, she asked, "Then…why don't you?" And their lips locked, the moonlight reflecting patterns off the water and onto their faces. Storm looked at the window at that moment, and a smile grew across her face. She flipped the switch to turn on the outside lights, making the scene even more surreal and dreamlike.

"It's about time," she said to herself, walking away to let the new couple have their privacy.


	20. Chapter Twenty

_Well, my twentieth chapter!_

_Sorry it took so long to update..._

_I kind of twisted a few of the simulation rules, by the way, so don't judge me._

_Longest chapter in the history of **Blessing in Disguise**! Over 12,500 words!!!_

_By the way, it's Saturday so far, just to keep you posted on what days it is for the story._

_It's a little hard to understand, so if you have any questions just comment or message me!_

_Here's a more specific time, by the way: My whole story takes place between episodes 35 and 36._

_So, enjoy Mneme's first expierience in the Danger Room! By the way, the simulation takes about all day to go through._

_Well, this one does, anyway..._

_Yeah, and I'm sorry that this chapter is boring, pointless, and stupid, so please don't flame me. It's too freaking long to read anyway..._

_I'm aiming for 50 reviews before I update, but I will be updating at least once every two weeks, whether I reach my review goal or not, so don't worry._

_Dedicated to Azusa-Phonos for having a great story and never letting me down on reviewing my story. ^^_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Twenty**

The sun was just rising over the treetops when Pietro woke up, sunshine raining through the branches and onto his face. Mneme was laying her head on his chest, snuggled into the crook of his arm. As soon as his eyes opened, her face was turned to face him, a gleeful smile stretched across her beautiful face. "Good morning," she greeted him happily. He smiled back down at her in response. "I should be getting back to the Institute, but I wanted to wait until you woke up so I could say goodbye." Mneme sat back on her hands, and Pietro propped himself up. She hugged him tightly and affectionately, so he wrapped his arm around her, looking in the sky with gratification. Then, after a quick peck on the cheek, she disappeared. Pietro felt as if she were still in his arms, dreaming they would be that way years from now. It was a pleasant thought, probably one of the most pleasant he'd had in his whole life. All the other girls he had taken out, dated, got off the streets, went out with—they never were enough. Each one seemed to be missing something, and whatever was missing seemed to urk Pietro. But Mneme had whatever those girls were missing, and Pietro knew that she was what he had been looking for all along.

Mneme appeared in the kitchen, in front of Rogue who was about to open the refrigerator. She jumped back, not expecting a pair of big gray-blue eyes to be inches away from her face. When she realized who it was, she placed a hand on her chest and breathed out slowly, straightening up after. "Hey. Where have you been?" she asked curiously. "Jean and Kitty came back real late last night—everyone was wondering where you were, but we suspected that you could take care of yourself…"

"I just went on a date." Mneme answered with a shrug. "But Pyro showed up—he's a creep." Rogue nodded in agreement, remembering the encounter the X-Men had with Magneto's henchmen. "All in all, it was wonderful. I'd love to go on another date soon," she said with a wide smile. Rogue grinned back at her.

"Sounds like you're lovestruck."

Mneme's face fell. "Lovestruck? What's that?"

How could Mneme not know? Rogue was tempted to laugh, but her narrow sense of humor wasn't quite struck. "It's when you fall completely head over heels for someone. When you just think about them all day, can't stop thinking about them, never want to be away from them—that sort of thing." Mneme thought about it.

"Head over heels…. But isn't your head always over your heels?" she asked, tilting her head to the side curiously. Rogue sighed—did she have to take everything literally?

"Listen, you love him, right?"

"I think so."

Rogue's eyebrow dipped down. "What do you mean 'I think so'?"

Mneme thought for a moment, not knowing how to tell her what she meant. "Well, I've never told him that I love him, and I don't always let him have his way, so I don't really know." Rogue's shoulders slouched at her answer.

"Mneme, love can be expressed, but just because you don't tell him doesn't mean you haven't expressed it some other way. And it's probably better that you didn't let him have his way…" Rogue was relieved that Mneme knew how to stand her ground when it came to Pietro: She knew that when it came to girls, every teenage boy had his…certain thoughts, and Pietro was the guy to never stop thinking about them. "Besides, love is an emotion, not an action. Well, not the kind of love I'm talking about, anyway."

"What other kinds of love—"

"Never mind that!" she said hurriedly. Rogue wasn't in the mood to be a sex education teacher—she had already gone through that with Kitty… "What I'm trying to tell you is…well… look at it this way: When you're sad, to you always announce to the world 'I'm sad'?" Mneme shook her head. "See? You express your emotions and feeling through different ways, sometimes with words, sometimes with actions. The same thing goes for love. You can show that you love someone other than saying 'I love you'."

"Oh…" Something occurred to Mneme. "Why don't things work out with two people from opposite sides?"

"Because their beliefs are different—or their colleagues don't approve and use force to break them up." Rogue grabbed an apple from behind her and took a bite out of it.

"Is that what happened with you and Gambit?" she asked. Rogue stiffened. She had really hoped that the conversation wouldn't come to this, but Mneme knew about the two.

_Why did I even tell her in the first place?_ Rogue asked herself. After all, Jean was the only other one that knew, and that wasn't intentional… "Well…not really. I don't think we were together long enough for either of those things to happen." Rogue felt cold liquid dripping down her hand. She lifted her hand and saw that she was crushing the apple in her grip. Grinding her teeth, she started toward the door, tossing the apple out on the way.

"So what did happen?"

"We had a secret love and things couldn't be kept like that anymore. It's just too hard to keep those things concealed…. And when Jean found out, I was lucky that she didn't tell anyone…" She started to walk out, but stopped in her tracks. "Have you seen that collar you let me borrow? Not that I need it, I was just wondering if you'd seen it anywhere?"

"Actually, I haven't, but I could get it in a snap—"

"That's alright. I'm sure it'll turn up sometime," Rogue insisted; she was more of the independent type. Mneme nodded and caught up to her. They walked down the hall, silence encasing them awkwardly. Mneme was so eager to know, but she didn't want to pry through Rogue's mind…but she also didn't want to bring up past sorrowful events. It started nagging at Mneme's insides, what had happened between Rogue and Gambit, but Rogue asked, "Do you want to go to a club with me tonight?" Mneme was a little shocked that she would ask her to come. "You know, since you all went on dates last night, I thought I'd go out tonight…"

Mneme smiled and nodded. "Of course! Sounds great!" Her ears perked up. "They're calling us from down below—c'mon." Mneme took Rogue's forearm and teleported them both to the Danger Room.

* * *

Pietro stood after a few moments of solitude, wishing that Mneme was still with him, but happy with how well their relationship was going. He looked in the direction of the Institute with a sort of longing in his eyes; even though he couldn't see the building, he knew Mneme was in there. "She's a keeper." he grinned to himself, feeling that he had definitely found the one.

"She's a killer." a voice corrected him from behind. Pietro spun around, alarmed at the sound of his father's voice. When Magneto saw that he was speechless, he continued, "Shameless vengeance is not something of virtue." Pietro swallowed hard, not too sure what exactly what to do or what to say. Pietro slicked his hair back nervously. "I don't appreciate you lying to me just to be with her." By this point Pietro's stomach had dropped from sheer horror, wondering what was to become of him. "Pyro has already informed me several times, as well as others, that you have been with her and she doesn't have the slightest bit of intention of joining." His eyes narrowed, a fire raging under the cloak of shadow. "And as I have just witnessed it, there is no point in hiding it anymore." Magneto's voice was stern, angry, and full of disappointment, the one thing that hit Pietro the hardest. His life was built around pride, and the only one able to knock down that towering foundation was his father.

"Listen, I'd love to chat but I really have to go…so…see ya!" he spluttered out, then went to zoom off, until he noticed that Magneto was using his powers to pull him by his earrings. He dragged him back over by his ears like any parent would do, just a little differently. When Magneto let go, Pietro knew he had no way out. With a sigh, he said, "What do you want me to do? I can't help that I've found a girl that I really like!" he said in his defense.

Magneto paced back and forth, his hands clasped behind his back. "You've lost control over your willpower, what very little control you had in the first place, but what's worse is that you've lost your self-centered thoughts. I'm sure the only thing you think about is that girl—"

"Her name is Mneme," Pietro interjected.

"—and I'm sure you really do have feelings for this so called Mneme. Just out of curiosity," Magneto said, slightly switching the subject, "how important are the tasks I give you?"

This wasn't quite what Pietro had been expecting, but he answered, "They're the most important thing in the world to me."

"And how important is Mneme to you?"

"The most important thing…in the world…" Pietro said, his voice trailing off with realization of what his father was trying to get at. He rubbed the back of his neck with slight embarrassment.

Magneto grunted with disappointment. "So if they're equal in importance, which is your top priority?" Pietro looked up at him, his eyes wide as he knew what was coming.

"You wouldn't—you won't make me choose between the two!" he said desperately, almost a plead. How was he supposed to choose between his life and his love?

"Loved ones aren't meant to be blurred into missions that you'd risk your life for, especially when that loved one tends to be the one you're supposed to be destroying." Magneto said, stopping in his tracks and looking behind him at his son. "You know what my cause is, you know what Xavier's cause is. When I go, it will be your responsibility to take up after me and continue what I've been working towards. What exactly do you think will happen when you finally see your chance for things between you and Mneme to be accepted by others?"

"I'd never—"

"Don't lie to me!" he bellowed irately. "You know as well as I do that you would take up the opportunity to join Xavier if it meant being with Mneme more often." Pietro was silent: Magneto knew him too well for him to tell any more lies. "Do you know what they call people like you?" He looked up and knitted his brows together, knowing it couldn't be anything good. "You're a weak link, someone who ruins great things just by simple ideas and foolish actions." His son gritted his teeth, flustered and confused. "There's the choice of giving up Mneme right now—"

"Never!" Pietro said without hesitation, making it clear that leaving Mneme wasn't an option to him. It wasn't even a thought. "Not in your wildest, craziest, most hopeful, outlandish dreams will you ever see me leaving Mneme."

"As I suspected." Magneto had the urge to sigh—his one and only son…a weakling, coward, idiot—but he refused to show any remorse for what Pietro chose, no matter how stupid. "Very well. My leadership will be passed on to Wanda in place of you."

"What?! She doesn't even like you—she _hates_ you!"

"Not for long. I have a few ideas in mind that will get her to realize where she's going wrong—or at least make her believe what she's doing is wrong."

Pietro paused, trying to take it all in. _Wanda_ was going to take his place? Everything that he'd been working for would be for naught—all because of a…stupid feeling?! It couldn't be true. It couldn't be… "So…all those attacks have just been observations?" he asked in disbelief. Why hadn't he seen it? "Then what's going to happen to Mneme?" he asked worriedly: If he wasn't going to get the second-most important thing, he might as well keep the first.

Magneto gave a shallow chuckle. "I've devised and plan and stolen a few items that will come in handy." Pietro stiffened as his father's harsh laughter pierced through the air, rattling his insides.

"No! I won't let you do that!" He ran towards him, but Magneto attempted to stop him, but he was too quick and dodged the blow. When he ducked down, Pietro was able to swipe Magneto's cape and tear it off, sending them both to the ground. Pietro was fast to react, on his feet and looking down at his father. But his attention was soon directed to a thick metal circlet lying on the ground next to him. "You…you took that?" Pietro snatched it up and started backing away, knowing that only his father would be so cruel as to take away someone's power to kill them.

"You fool." Magneto raised his hand and the collar that Rogue had been using flew into his palm. Magneto had stolen it right out of the gothic girl's window using his power, and with the technology that he held in his hand he'd be able to defeat Mneme. "You've seen enough—enough to tell your petty girlfriend what I plan to do." Pietro turned to dart away, but it was too late. He was running quickly for a Human, but he couldn't trigger his power. He skidded to a halt and felt around his neck—Magneto had locked it around him, forcing his powers to become useless. Pietro had not choice now but to fight back, so he ran at Magneto, arm cocked back and ready to strike. Magneto stepped aside with ease, elbowing the silver haired boy on the back of his neck. Pietro fell to the ground, seeing double of everything. Struggling to get up, Magneto kicked his gut, forcing him to flop back into the dirt and grass. The sweet smell of roses and carnations overwhelmed him, bringing back the memory of the first bunch of flowers he had ever brought Mneme. He almost smiled, but his father's grip on his hair wrenched him out of his thoughts. Magneto thrust him across a small stretch of field, sending him into a tree. As Pietro sank to the ground, his whole body screaming out in pain and his mind whirling, his sight faded to black.

* * *

Mneme looked around the simulation. It was a dark rain forest with wild animals leaping through the trees. Rogue was paired with Spyke, Jean with Scott, and Kurt with Kitty, and their objective was to rescue the rest of the X-Men recruits—which Mneme had just found out about. Apparently they had been sent away for a sort of practice-mission, and Wolverine had been checking up on them. She guessed that's why he had been disappearing from time to time. Mneme hadn't met any of these eight Mutants, so she was looking forward to when they would come back from Papua New Guinea.

The brief on the simulation was that Magneto teamed up with Mesmero and decided to hold the rest of the X-Men—including Wolverine—hostage, for unknown purposes. Of course, Mneme was limited on her powers this time—besides her automatic powers, she was only allowed to use one other of her choice. When Mneme chose, she decided to that control over plants would be the best since the terrain would be full of plants. She was also able to turn her collar up to the fourth notch.

So Mneme was traveling by herself, probably the better for her. She wasn't the best at working as a team—one move from her and the enemy was knocked out. Weaving silently throughout the closely spaced trees, Mneme thought about where nine captives would be held. Probably in some sort of metal building with lots of traps that Magneto could control, or something that Mesmero would have come up with. Mneme hadn't met him, so she wouldn't know what to expect without using her powers that were off limits. She looked above her and saw many eyes staring down at her. Of course, she had nothing to be afraid of when it came to the native lemurs. Then an idea occurred… "Do you know where there are any odd people around these parts?" she asked, speaking in a context that the lemurs could understand.

* * *

Rogue and Spyke were set on traveling closer to the heart of the rainforest—if hostages were going to be kept in a jungle, they'd be kept in the densest areas. They ran side by side through the underbrush, keeping on the aware. Spyke's foot slipped and he fell onto his knees, the impact sending sharp spikes all around. Rogue drew in a sharp breath and ducked, a few spikes barely missing her by inches. "Evan," she said irately, "what was that all about?!"

"I'm sorry, I just haven't been able to get my powers focused lately…" he explained, using all his strength to force back a few spikes that were still coming out of his arms. "Things have been a little tough for me these past few days." Spyke remembered what Mneme had said, how he was going to join the Morlocks. He didn't exactly know who they were, but they must be someone who could give him some kind of extra training to get his powers maintained. Rogue looked around at all the sharp spikes sticking into the trees.

"Yeah…. Well, we'd better get going to find the others," she reminded, and they headed off.

* * *

Jean and Cyclops had agreed that she should fly above and take a look, but the thick canopy of leaves forbade her to see under. She flew back down onto the beach's sand next to Cyclops and shook her head. "Don't worry, we'll find another way to search," Cyclops assured hopefully. "Maybe checking the beaches for any evidence would be a good place to start off."

Jean nodded and flew up a little lower than before, scanning the ground for footprints and other things that could have led to being held hostage. After a few seconds of searching, it was clear that a battle was held further down the beach—scorch marks and blood could visibly be seen, so it wouldn't be doubtful that there was a trail where they were dragged off. "Scott! There's something down there!"

He cupped his ear. "What? I can't hear you from way up there!" Jean rolled her eyes and flew down to him.

"I said there's something down there."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get to it!" he said, already starting to run down the shore and to the scene.

* * *

Shadowcat and Nightcrawler weren't having as much luck as the other three groups. In fact, there wasn't any luck with them at all. Nightcrawler felt guilty for letting Shadowcat go so easily, and she was angry with him for taking up on another girl so quickly. Of course, he was trying to be kind to her and not get her upset or in the way, but things weren't quite going as planned…

"This looks like it vas probably being used as a trap of some sort," Nightcrawler pointed out, indicating toward a bunch of knotted vines hanging from a tree branch. Shadowcat hardly glanced at it before walking past.

"That's just a jumble of vines." She rolled her eyes and continued walking, not caring whether or not he followed. Of course he did, being the innocent, pointy-eared Mutant that everyone loves.

"Look—it's a path!" he said as he parted the underbrush. Shadowcat scoffed.

"What did you think it was? A highway? You seriously, like, need to get a grip, Kurt." Shadowcat said, stepping out and walking down the way.

"Kitty—I vouldn't go down a path if I vere you…" he warned with concern. "That's vhat they vould be expecting—besides, there aren't any natives around here to make a path, so that means it vas probably Magneto or—"

"Nightcrawler, would you just _calm down_?" Shadowcat asked, annoyed. "You act like I'm going to die just from, like, walking down a stupid dirt path. If it really scares you that much, why don't you just go a different way?"

Nightcrawler swallowed. "Ve're supposed to be staying in a group—"

"Do you always have to, like, play by the rules? I mean, it's not like the other team does, so what makes you think that we have to?" Shadowcat asked, not even bothering to look at him. She knew that if she wanted him back, she would probably have to be nice to him and show affection, but Shadowcat had given it some thought and wasn't exactly too pleased with how everything was going.

"Kitty, I'm not going. You can go if you vant to, but I don't think you should…"

"Whatever! You need to, like, go grow up, or something!" Shadowcat huffed, stomping down the path.

Nightcrawler looked after her helplessly. "I don't have a good feeling about this…"

* * *

Mneme narrowed her eyes, trying to see what was across the way. It was some sort of structure that must have been built years ago. "Thanks, you guys!" she told the lemurs, who chattered back in reply and jumped off through the trees. She walked on until she reached the odd structure, seeing that it was a dome-shaped building covered moss and vines. Mneme grinned at her discovery, seeing that the activation panel was much newer than the building, judging by how shiny it was and not covered with vegetation it was. She bent over to examine it. The numbers on it were glowing, waiting for an activation code. Mneme held her wrist up to her mouth and was ready to announce to the others that she found where the hostages were, but she sensed someone's presence—from farther away than she was able to do before. _Changing the notches really does make a difference_, she realized, looking in the direction that she sensed the enemy. _It's Pyro…_ She was able to tell who it was much faster than before, also. Now that she was only allowed to control plants, her idea was to make the growth so thick that he wouldn't be able to get by. Mneme outstretched her hands and focused all her energy on the plants, making them quadruple in growth speed. All around her and as far as the eye could see the plants were growing as if they were on an overdose of steroids. From the side of the hill where she was standing, there was no way anyone would be able to get through the trees. She didn't mean for the whole forest to grow, just the area around Pyro…. It seemed that her powers were also more difficult to control. "That should hold him. Now…" She turned back to the dome, but not before she heard the sound of crackling fire. Spinning around in alarm, she saw a giant path of flames clearing away the forest, starting about two miles away. "Oh no."

* * *

Jean and Cyclops halted when they reached the bloody section of the beach. There was a trail of blood and the sand was parted visibly—it was clear that at least one of them was dragged away. "It leads into the trees. Let's go." Jean said, leading the way into the forest. They kept an eye on the blood drips, trying to keep track of which way they were taken.

"I'm no expert, but I'd say we're doing a pretty good," Cyclops commented, giving Jean a crooked smile. She returned it and continued walking. Suddenly things got darker and the trees started rumbling, a root tripping her as she took a step back. Jean jumped up when she felt something squirming under her. "What the—?" Cyclops took her shoulders and pulled her back. "Why is that root moving?!"

"I don't know, but it's probably the same reason why the canopy is blocking all the sunlight." he stated. "It looks like the plants have a mind of their own or have some super growth process going on…"

"Mneme," they suspected in unison. But something else caught their attention when the bushes started to rustle next to them. Cyclops lifted his fingers to his visor, ready to hit anyone who seemed to be a threat, and Jean tensed herself, ready for battle. Out of the bushes came Multiple, one of the supposed captives. The two older students gave a sigh of relief and relaxed.

Jean gave a friendly smile at the boy. "Thank goodness it's you!" Her smile faded when she saw that he was bleeding—it must've been his blood trail. "Are you alright?"

He hugged his elbows and started quivering, clearly not willing to answer. "I—I don't know…. The others are all gone…" he said with a trembling voice.

Cyclops and Jean gave each other concerned glances. "What do you mean?" he asked Multiple. He noticed that he had many cuts slicing open his uniform and through his skin. _He's really traumatized by this…_

"I…I don't know…" he told them, not seeming able to look at them. "They were…taken away…"

Jean furrowed her brow, not sure what to make out of the situation so far. "Taken away? Do you know where?"

"No…" he answered simply. Multiple looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Don't let them take me—I can still hear their screams." he said in a shaky whisper. Jean's eyes widened at how tormented Multiple seemed—he was usually so rambunctious and happy.

Cyclops wondered if he should press on the matter, not wanting the young boy to recall the things that seemed to wrench him so much. "So…do you remember who they were?"

"It—it was…" Multiple swallowed hard before continuing, his eyes focusing on nothing, his mind lost in space. "It was…"

Jean walked forward. "It's alright; you don't have to tell us if you don't feel like it," she said, moving to place her arms around him reassuringly. He jumped away and looked at her fearfully.

"Don't touch me!" he yelled at her wildly, his eyes glazed with terror. "You've come here to take me back to them! I—I won't let you do it!" Multiple shouted and jumped through the bushes, having no problem getting around the tightly packed trees.

"Wait! Jamie!" Jean called, trying to follow him.

Cyclops followed, having even more trouble getting by. "How'd he get through this…?"

* * *

Rogue and Spyke came to the side of a cliff when they halted. They overlooked the landscape, trying to see anything that could be useful. They had made it to what seemed to be the heart of the forest, so their hunch would be correct if there was any strange building or activity that they could see…

"There," Rogue pointed out down the way. It was a low dome-shaped building that had moss and lichen and vines growing all over it. "That must be it."

Spyke looked at it—it had to be about a mile away, not to mention way below them. "Yeah, but how are we going to get there?" he asked, a slightly irritated tone catching his voice. Rogue looked at him angrily.

"Don't you go blaming me for _anything_, you—" she started, but paused when she heard a groaning noise. "Are you really that hungry?"

Spyke raised an eyebrow. "That wasn't me, dude." He looked over his shoulder. "It sounds like it's coming from those trees." Rogue's face fell.

"Do you think it's some…jaguar or something?" she said, her eyes focused on where the sound seemed to be coming from. Spyke turned to face the forest, getting ready for a wild animal to reveal itself any minute. For a second, he thought he was hallucinating, but the more he looked at it, the more evident it became: The trees were visibly moving—growing WAY faster than they were supposed to…

Rogue narrowed her eyes. "Do you see that?" Spyke nodded silently. The tension was so high that they both were holding their breath. Then the branches that were twining together were suddenly parted by a long metal staff, scaring Rogue so much that she yelped and jumped back, her feet sliding off the edge of the cliff. Spyke quickly grabbed the green part of her uniform, very close to her breasts. He felt his face get hot with embarrassment, but Rogue was so set on not falling that she didn't even notice. "Are you going to pull me up or what?" she asked impatiently, glancing down below her worriedly. When she was pulled back up, regaining her breath, a familiar face made her heart skip a beat.

* * *

Shadowcat was extremely angry with herself for acting the way she did—somehow she felt that Nightcrawler would never like her again, and that's what was making her act so bitchy. Suddenly things got dark. She looked around her, now unsure and a little frightened. Beneath her feet something moved, so she jumped to the side, only to find that the ground was moving there also. Giving a little scream, she jumped from foot to foot down what she thought was the path, although she couldn't be sure since it was so dark and the ground kept moving. "Ew! This is so disgusting!" she said to herself, and broke out into a run, but not for long since she ran head-on into something wide and covered in bark. Falling back on her butt, she rubbed her nose and forehead, which were throbbing with pain. "Ugh…" she groaned, getting up and feeling her way forward. All around her there were strange noises, seeming to be coming from the trees. Shadowcat's hands were placed on a tree in front of her—and it seemed to be stretching. She phased through it quickly in alarm, but as she passed through it, she could feel the inside of the tree moving around. When she came back out, she gave a shudder before continuing walking. "That is so creepy." Her hands fell on something cold, flat, and hard.

"I have been waiting for you," a voice said in a heavy Russian accent.

* * *

Nightcrawler was teleporting from tree to tree in search of Shadowcat. After a few minutes of solitude, he decided that leaving her alone wasn't the best of his ideas, whether she wanted him along or not. But when he had got back to where the path had been, it was covered with underbrush, so he couldn't follow the path to find her. After a bit of going from limb to tree limb, he noticed that the branches were a lot thicker and the trees were getting denser. "Shadowcat!" he called out, hanging from a branch with his tail. "Kitty! Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!" Nightcrawler teleported a few more times in search of her, but he was left without any traces. Crouching on a branch as thick as a tree trunk, he scratched his head. "Vhere could she be…?" he asked aloud.

"I'm not sure who you're talking about, but I'm right here and that's all you need to worry about now," a known voice said from behind. Nightcrawler knew that there was no time to look, so he teleported to the tree above him and looked down at his rival.

* * *

Whatever happened, Mneme couldn't let Pyro know that she had found the building—he'd probably alert Magneto or something like that, so that meant he couldn't see her near it. Taking a deep breath, Mneme ran down the slightly inclined mountainside, using her powers to move the plants out of her way as she sped toward Pyro. It wasn't long before she came upon a wide, long strip of ashes from burnt trees and plants. The orange-haired maniac was standing before her, flamethrower nozzles in hand and ready to fire. Before the battle started, Mneme decided that she should at least find out the essentials. "So what are you doing here?"

He grinned at her. "Is that any of your business, little missy?" he asked, slightly relaxing when he noticed that she was just wanted to talk for the moment. "Would you like to talk about this over the table, with the classic wine and dine?" he fantasized aloud. Clearly Xavier had found out about Pyro's flirtatious manner with her, or else the simulation wouldn't be so engaging. Mneme rolled her eyes.

She didn't want to have to resort to one of her lower tactics, but when duty calls…

"Well, cutie," she said, forcing herself to add a seductive tone (as you can see, this is her low tactic as mentioned above), "I just thought that I'd find out why you're here…since some force such as fate has seemed to bring us together. Things like this don't happen on coincidence." Pyro seemed a little confused by what she was getting at, but decided to answer her question anyway.

"Well, I'm here to attack the X-Men, and it just so happens that my main target is you," he told her, a toothy grin playing across his face as she moved in closer.

"And just why exactly would you do that?"

Pyro paused for a moment, watching her circle him. "So you can't get the hostages, of course…" he answered slowly, not too focused on talking, but more on her.

Mneme stopped in front of him, locking her eyes with his. "And what exactly are these hostages being held for?"

"They're—wait a minute, I know what you're playing at!" Pyro said irately, pushing her back. Mneme sighed in exasperation: Did he _have_ to make things so difficult?

_I'll just have to work on my seductive side_, she told herself.

"You can't steal a kiss from me and then just run off like all those other girls do," Pyro finished, making Mneme raise her eyebrows. So he hadn't figured what she was trying to do…

"Fine then. What do you say about telling me where my friends are?" she asked him, batting her eyelashes at him. Pyro narrowed his eyes, not too sure what to make of the situation. "You know," Mneme said, putting a finger to her chin and seeming as if trying to recall something, "if I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure that one of them says she likes you…"

He looked slightly taken aback, but straightened up and gave a sideways grin. "Really then? Which one?" Mneme stiffened—she had no idea what their names were or what they looked like, and she wasn't allowed to use her powers to check either…

"Um…the pretty one?" Mneme suggested unsurely, but Pyro didn't even notice. He was grinning ear to ear.

"The pretty one, eh? That must be the one they call Magma. That fiery look when she transforms is just unbelievable…" Pyro walked forward and past Mneme, toward the dome building.

"Wait—you shouldn't go talk to her…yet."

"Why not?" he asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Because…because she's shy. I should probably warn her before you start talking to her."

Pyro looked suspicious, but agreed anyway. "Alright. Go talk to her. She's in the building up the hill."

"How do I get in?" Mneme asked, trying to seem as innocent as a girl who killed seven people could be. Pyro scratched his chin.

"There's some kind of number pad that you have to put the activation code in," he started. "Magneto told only me and his other henchmen, so don't tell anyone else, but the numbers are 7, 1, 8, 7, 0, 2, 1, 6, in that order." Of course, being so caught up in the moment and wanting to talk to Magma as soon as possible, Pyro hadn't noticed a vine that had been slithering up behind him. Mneme quickly sent it through the bottom of his gasoline tank, hard enough to break the surface but gentle enough to where he wouldn't feel the break.

Mneme gave a friendly smile. "Thanks! I'll go talk to her and hook you up," she said as she walked by him, giving a small wave. When she turned around the vine wrenched itself out of the tank, letting the liquid pour over the ground blanketed in ash. _Guys are so gullible…_Mneme thought to herself. _Well, at least the desperate ones._

"I always smell like gasoline, but it's never this strong…" Pyro commented to himself, obviously getting a trace of the gas spilling out. He was bound to figure it out any second…. She glanced back and clenched her fist, ordering the vine to wrap itself around Pyro's neck. Alarmed, he tried to pull it off, but Mneme's power held it steady. He reached for his flamethrowers, but nothing came out. Looking down, he saw a few drips of gasoline hitting the ground. _God damn it…_ he thought to himself before passing out. Mneme smiled in approval, releasing her control over the vine and sending it back into the forest. When she reached the structure, she punched in the combination 7-1-8-7-0-2-1-6. The outline of a door started glowing in bright blue on the surface of the dome, then parted in half and slipped aside into the wall. Mneme looked down inside the dark tunnel and grinned to herself, lifting her wrist to her mouth.

* * *

"Bonjour, mademoiselle," Gambit said as he walked toward the two. Rogue was unable to move, memories coming back to her only too clearly (Author's note: You'll find out in later chapters, perhaps the next one). Spyke just had enough time to turn around before a boot collided with his chest, sending Rogue and him over the edge. They ricocheted off jutting rocks, Gambit nimbly jumping down after them. It was about twenty seconds before the two X-Men hit the ground, bleeding and out of breath. As Spyke hit the ground, sharply pointed rock-resembling objects accidentally shot out at all sides, but Gambit easily deflected them with his staff. "A warm welcome won't be offered here, will it?" he asked, the question more directed at Rogue. She strained to lift up her head and look at him, and even though he was just a simulation, her heartstrings were being pulled just at the sight of him.

Spyke jumped up, ready to attack. "How's this for a warm welcome?" he asked as he shot a few more spikes from his palms. Rogue, trying not to let her past interfere, ran over to the side of the cliff and jumped off against it, tackling Gambit from behind as he dodged the spikes. Rogue held him in a chokehold and kicked her heals into his gut while she tried to undo her glove, but Gambit reached above him, grabbed her shoulders, and wrenched her off his back, tossing her to the ground. Rogue breathed out right before reaching the ground so she wouldn't get any air knocked out of her and be left gasping for air. Gambit thrust his staff into the ground beside her head, grinning down at her. Stunned a bit and not wanting to attack such a face, she laid on her back dumfounded. Gambit picked up his staff and raised it high above his head, ready to strike. As the metal got ready to hit Rogue, she tightened her eyes. "Not on my watch," Spyke's voice said. Rogue opened her eyes to see a rock shaped like a poorly made double-sided sword blocking Gambit's staff. They stood glaring at each other, so Rogue took the opportunity to kick Gambit off his feet.

He fell back onto his rear, giving Rogue enough time to jump up, but he was back on his feet in a snap and wasn't willing to let that happen again. Spyke moved in, thrusting the giant spike at their rival, and the two engaged in combat. Rogue, seemingly forgotten about, silently climbed up on one of the ledges, signaling for Spyke to move Gambit below her. Spyke held the sword up just in time to block Gambit's staff that was about to come down on his head. But that didn't stop Gambit from using force. If Spyke was too weak, Gambit's staff was still able to hit him hard enough to send him to the ground. Mustering all his strength, Spyke pushed against the staff, sending Gambit back far enough for Rogue to get him. She pounced from above him on the ledge, but Gambit was too quick and spun around, hitting her in the side with the staff, sending her into the rocks. He walked over to Rogue, who wasn't able to focus quite clearly yet. Raising his staff up, he got ready to strike her. Before she knew it, Rogue saw that he was collapsed on the ground, Spyke standing in his place holding the double-sided sword. Gambit stirred, not completely unconscious, so Rogue touched his face (rather affectionately) and absorbed his power, then stood up. At that moment a message was coming from their wristbands.

"This is Mneme," it announced in their friend's voice. "I'm pretty sure I've found where the hostages are being held…and the entrance is open. I'll be sending up a giant tree as a land marker so you can find it," she finished. Now that the two were on the outskirts of the forest, they weren't able to see much, but the top of the extremely tall tree that Mneme sent up a few seconds later was clearly visible. Rogue nodded toward Spyke.

* * *

"I don't want to hurt you," the voice said to her. "But it is my job." He grabbed her hands off his chest, but Shadowcat quickly phased through them, not knowing what else to do—how was she supposed to compete with a giant metal man?!

Shadowcat was so terrified that she knew that she was going to pee in her uniform any second. She was running away as quickly as she could from the giant metal man, the one she remembered was named Colossus. Phasing through trees was her way of getting ahead, but it didn't seem to be working, because every time she glanced behind her, he was there. After a while of running, Shadowcat didn't think she could take anymore of running blindly around, going through trees, and worrying about a metal man about to rip her head off. She spun around and turned to face him when she reached a clearing, where the grass was as tall as she was. Colossus looked down at her menacingly, but she ducked underneath the grass, a plan already forming in her head. He looked around, trying to pinpoint where she was, but she was phasing through the grass, so the blades didn't move when she touched them. Shadowcat made her way around until she was behind him then grabbed his ankles, phasing his legs into the grass. He hadn't been expecting this, but wasn't alarmed. Easily, he picked up his feet, snapping the blades of grass in half as if they were pieces of wet tissue paper. Shadowcat swallowed nervously—she was going to have to find something to hold him if she ever wanted to get away.

With a small yelp of alarm, she disappeared underground to get out of the way of his powerful punch. Even underneath the surface she could feel the ground tremble from the impact. Shadowcat thought for a moment. What was stronger than grass that wasn't hard to find in a rainforest? _Trees! Duh!_ she said to herself. Returning to the surface, she was purposely loud by rustling the bushes as she ran away, trying to get his attention. Halfheartedly, Colossus stomped after her, the ground shaking under his footsteps. Shadowcat tried her best to find the biggest tree there was, but Colossus was gaining on her—fast. She ran inside one of the smaller trees, trying to hide from him. But he was no dummy—he simply spotted her ponytail that was carelessly sticking out of the trunk and yanked her out painfully, ripping the whole tree open. "OW!" she yelled at him furiously, alarming him so much that he dropped her on her bottom. "Don't you, like, know how to treat a woman properly? Do you even _know_ how long it took me to, like, get my hair as good as it was?!" she questioned, temper rising quickly. Slightly taken aback, Colossus didn't answer, but watched speechlessly as she started redoing her hair. "Guys! I swear they have absolutely no respect for women!" Shadowcat ranted to herself.

"I am extremely sorry, miss, but I was just doing my—"

"Sorry? SORRY?!" Shadowcat yelled at him angrily. "'I am just doing my job'," she mocked in a phony deep voice. "Yeah, you'd better be sorry! What you just did was seriously worth a severe punishment!" Colossus glanced from side to side, not quite sure what she had in mind. "You're coming with me!" she told him in a stern voice, reaching up as far as her arm could reach and grabbing his metal earlobe. He walked doubled over as she guided him through the woods, her eyes searching for something. "There it is. Stand next to that tree." Shadowcat ordered, indicating toward the tallest and widest of the trees surrounding them. A little sunlight was able to filter through, though not much. Colossus obeyed, leaning against the tree with his head bent in shame. For a few seconds, Shadowcat actually felt bad for him, but reminded herself, _He's just a simulation._ She put her hands on his chest and phased him in the tree in a flash, before he could even react. From his knees down was left sticking out, and his head on the other side.

"You tricked me!" he accused in his Russian accent.

Shadowcat brushed her hands off. "Yeah, well you should know that women are evil," she answered simply. At that second, Mneme's message came in. She listened to it intently before starting to walk away.

"The place has been found?" Colossus asked.

"Um…yeah…" Shadowcat answered, slightly confused at his hopeful tone.

"Good luck, then."

Shadowcat felt a pang hit her heart: How could she just leave such a kind person alone inside a tree?! But she had to…. _Why would he wish me good luck? Is the Professor out of his mind? _She asked herself silently. Without a word, she continued walking, the growth of the trees going back to normal. Looking up at the sky, Shadowcat could see the tall tree that Mneme had set up, and started making her way to it.

* * *

Sabretooth jumped upward, latching onto the upper branch with his claw-like nails, then swung himself up to stand in front of Nightcrawler. Before the boy could even think, Sabretooth was coming at him head-on, so he teleported in a split second out of instinct more than willing reaction. Nightcrawler found that he was on the forest floor, looking up at the older Mutant. _I was looking for a kitty, but I meant Shadowcat, not Sabretooth!_ he said to himself, a little upset that he had completely given away his cover by yelling out her name so loudly. He found it kind of odd that he would still care about her so much…. Shaking his head, Nightcrawler got his head back into reality, but when he looked up, Sabretooth was gone. _That's not good…_ Nightcrawler spun around just in time to see Sabretooth jumping out of the bushes, about to crush him. He teleported up into the trees just in time, but Sabretooth was upon almost as quick as he teleported. _Teleporting isn't going to get me out of this one…_ Nightcrawler tried to think of some alternatives, but all he could think of was having Kitty phasing him into the ground or a tree or something to that affect. Why couldn't he think of something that he could do? Nightcrawler couldn't think straight while trying to get away from the psycho, so he teleported a little farther away to get some quiet. He knew that Sabretooth would eventually track him down, but for now he was safe.

_SMACK!_

Or maybe he wasn't safe.

Nightcrawler felt the hard blow to his back, right in between his shoulder blades, sending him falling down to the forest floor. But before he could teleport, a crisscrossing of many vines entangled him. Struggling to get out, he became stuck and completely immobilized—which was perfect. He grinned and teleported to the ground, crouching low and waiting for Sabretooth to attack. He pounced from branch to branch until he was low enough to where there were no branches, so then he pushed himself off the trunks until he reached the ground. Nightcrawler was expecting him to take a few seconds to gain his bearings, but Sabretooth was clawing his way towards him, transitioning the two movements smoothly. Nightcrawler teleported away just in time so his face wouldn't get scratched off, appearing in the air and grabbing one of the vines. Falling downwards, he got close enough to drop the vine over his rival. Sabretooth took a swipe at him, but Nightcrawler was already teleporting to get the next vine. This went on several times, Sabretooth never quite able to get Nightcrawler. In fact, he was so frustrated that he didn't even notice the vines that were being draped over him, and every time he turned to try and get a better shot at Nightcrawler, he just got himself tangled more. That is, until he couldn't move his arms to try and scratch him. Looking down at the vines that had encased him, Sabretooth let out a furious snarl.

"I'll get you for this!" he roared wrathfully.

Nightcrawler shook the last vine in his hand. "Vhat are you talking about? You'll never be able to get out of that!" he jeered as he walked around him, tying him securely. Sabretooth tried to jump at him from his blind fury, but he just ended up falling on his face, resulting in some serious laughter from Nightcrawler—until he was interrupted by an urgent message from Mneme. He listened to her report, then looked down at Sabretooth. "Sorry, but I've got to be somevhere," he said with a small sloppy salute. He teleported to the top of the trees and immediately spotted the tree that Mneme had indicated.

* * *

Jean and Cyclops were heaving when they finally caught up to Multiple. "We…just want…to…" Cyclops started, but the little boy started running off again in fear. They had been chasing him for about ten minutes now, each time getting away from them but then waiting for them to catch up. And even though Jean and Cyclops were breathing their hardest, Multiple seemed unaffected by all the excessive running through the dense underbrush.

"You're not getting away this time!" Jean said with a slight hint of anger in her voice, outstretching her hands to telekinetically stop him, but she couldn't seem to get a grip on him. "What the—?"

"I've got him!" Cyclops said, sprinting forward and tackling him—and hitting a tree when he landed. He looked down, expecting to see the young boy in his grasp, but there was nothing. "What…what's going on?!"

Jean shook her head ashamedly. "I should have seen it…"

"Wait…what?"

"When you touched him, he disappeared. Mastermind must have been using an illusion and used telepathy to make it seem as if he was talking." Jean sighed, completely disappointed in herself. "Why hadn't I seen it? He probably directed us away from where the hostages are." She dropped to her knees. Cyclops put his arm around her. She looked into where she guessed his eyes would be, but turned away. He gently put a finger under her chin and tilted her head up to face him.

"It's not your fault, Jean," he said. "Let's just—" He was interrupted by Mneme's message. They listened to it, then looked at each other, wondering what to do next.

Jean looked above them and thought for a moment. "You laser the canopy and I'll lift us over to where Mneme is waiting."

"But what about Mastermind?"

"He doesn't matter—he probably won't try to fool us again." Jean assured, standing up next to him. Cyclops nodded and shot a laser beam up at the branches above them, making a large hole. Sunlight filtered down on the couple, and Scott put his arm around Jean's waist. She lifted them both up and above the trees, easily spotting the tree and making their way over to it.

* * *

The first to arrive was Nightcrawler, then Rogue and Spyke, and then Shadowcat. "Great! Everyone's here—sans Jean and Scott…" Mneme announced, looking around at the others for suggestion on where they might be, but they had nothing.

"They'd better not be hugging and kissing, hiding in the woods and stuff…" Rogue said lowly. The others nodded in agreement, but Jean and Cyclops were usually the most responsible—something must be keeping them back. Mneme felt like she should take charge, since Jean took charge when Cyclops wasn't around and vice versa, so she took held the wristband up to her mouth again. "Jean? Cyclops? Are you there?" It was a few seconds before their reply came.

"We're on our way right now," Cyclops reported.

"Alright. We'll wait for you, but don't take too long," Mneme said, not trying to sound bossy, but they honestly didn't have any time to lose.

As the minutes passed by, they each tried to get comfortable and to amuse themselves, but after about ten minutes, no one could take anymore.

"Mneme," Nightcrawler said with exasperation, "I can't take anymore! Ve can't be vesting anymore time vaiting for them!"

"Yeah, they've taken way more time than necessary," Spyke agreed.

"That could mean something's wrong," Rogue pointed out, still slightly having feelings for Scott.

Shadowcat nodded. "Yeah, we can't just, like, leave them out here…can we?"

Mneme sighed. "We have no choice, those hostages must be rescued, whether Jean and Cyclops are here or not." She turned and looked down the dark sloping tunnel. It didn't seem to have any stairs, just a smooth shoot. She guessed that they were supposed to slide down, so she signaled the others for her to follow and jumped in feet first. Nightcrawler looked after her timidly, not willing to go down there.

"Bottoms up," Shadowcat said, pushing him by his shoulders headfirst into the tunnel. His echoing yell could be heard, but disappeared after a few seconds. Rogue climbed in next, then Shadowcat, and Spyke lastly clambered in. When they reached the bottom there was nothing in the small room but a metal door to match the plain walls and a scanner. Mneme turned to Nightcrawler.

"Go get Pyro—he should be about an eighth of a mile from here to the west. He's unconscious—just get him back here quickly." she said to him, then stood patiently as he teleported out. Rogue leaned against the wall and Spyke sat down while Shadowcat examined her nails. "_What_ are you guys doing?" she asked with a slight hiss.

"Relaxing," Spyke said with a shrug, and Mneme just glared. "What's the big deal?"

Mneme clenched her fists. Didn't they know _anything_? "Rogue, that could've been a trap door, activated when someone puts pressure on the wall, and then you'd end up all by yourself, possibly in danger." Rogue looked at the wall beside her with realization, knowing that Mneme was probably right, and she stood up straight. "Spyke, an enemy could be arriving any second and you're just sitting there, not on the alert at all. And Shadowcat…" Mneme's shoulders drooped as she looked at the vain girl. "You should be alert too—your nails can wait." Shadowcat looked at Spyke, who just shrugged, and the two stood regularly, listening and watching for a sign of the enemy.

A loud cracking noise erupted and Nightcrawler appeared, holding an unconscious Pyro. "He's vay heavier than I vould have ever thought!" he huffed, handing Mneme the body, who had ease holding him up. She took off one of his gloves and pressed his hand against the scanner. After a few seconds, their access was granted and the door slid opened. They walked on, but Mneme held up her hand to halt them.

"Look at the tiles," she told them. They were about 2x2 feet, alternating black and white. "The floor before this was just a big piece of slate—this is obviously some kind of obstacle," she explained in a hushed voice.

"So how do we get by?" Rogue asked, her voice also low.

Mneme dropped to the ground and closed one eye, trying to see which of the tiles were level and which were irregular. This was very simple to her, and it turned out that the black tiles were safe; the white ones triggered something. "The white tiles are raised higher than the black, so if you step on one, it will sink lower and activate an alert or trap." They looked back at her with slight confusion. "That means you can only walk on the black tiles." Mneme said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Hoisting Pyro up on her shoulder, Mneme carefully stepped on the first black tile, then the one diagonal to it. The others followed, making their way safely across the room. Mneme recognized an eye scanner, so she removed Pyro's visor and lifted up his eyelid, his eyes rolled up into his head from unconsciousness. She put her finger on the side of his eye and made it look straight into the scanner, the others a little disgusted with her method. The door opened and she jumped across a white tile and onto the black one in front of the opening, then stepped into the next room. Rogue, Spyke, and Shadowcat followed her footsteps, but Nightcrawler just teleported in to save the hassle. Looking around, Mneme saw that there was no scanner, nor any traps, just a normal metal hallway with fluorescent lights. "Let's go." She dropped Pyro limply on the spot and started running down the long hall. Their footsteps echoed off the bare walls, and eventually they came to a last metal door. Mneme slowed to a walk and cautiously walked through, only to see a large room full of students in X-Men apprentice uniforms, Magneto, Mesmero, and… "Pietro?" Mneme said with surprise.

"Nice of you to join us, X-Men," Magneto said, but something wasn't right—it was almost as if he thought the whole thing was comical. Mesmero nodded at the newer X-Men, and they rushed at their rescuers, activating their powers. Nightcrawler grabbed Rogue's and Spyke's arms and teleported them to the other side of the room while Shadowcat sank through the floor. Mneme stood relaxed as a boy with the lower half of his body looking like a tornado torpedoed toward her. She lifted her hands and multiple vines shot through the floor, bonding together to make a strong wall. When he hit it, Mneme's power made the vines too strong to demolish, she he was knocked backwards, dazed by the impact. Mneme forced the vines back underground, only to see Quicksilver grinning at her, only a few feet away from her.

"Pietro, what are you even doing here?" she asked in a whisper, not wanting the others to see that she was talking right in the middle of a battle. He didn't answer, but started running around her, the wind creating a tornado. As he passed by her, he'd hit her on the head, making her feel a little disorientated. "Wait a minute, this isn't right!" she shouted out, mainly talking to Xavier. "Pietro wouldn't attack me!"

Shadowcat grunted as a big red wolf ran her down and tossed her to the ground. "Mneme, just attack him!"

"He's just a simulation!" Nightcrawler reminded, trying to wrestle a boy made of ice to the ground.

Spyke pinned a girl with black hair to the ground with a few spikes. "You've got to get Mesmero!"

"You're the only one who can take him—he's got them under mind control!" Rogue yelled, trying to grab hold of one of many same boys with brown hair, but every time she almost got a hold of one, it would disappear. Mneme was ignoring the tornado that was swirling around her—she wasn't ever going to be able to attack Pietro! But she had to stop him so she could at least get Mesmero…

Mneme held her hands out, more vines protruding from her palm in a flash, grabbing hold of Pietro and stopping him in his tracks. They wrapped around him, immobilizing him as he fell to the floor. She ran over towards Mesmero, but a girl the resembled a fire and a person that was pitch black—the gender wasn't recognizable—quickly blocked her way. They both had fire on their side, so plants weren't going to help Mneme here. She waited for them to make the first move, then used her agility to dodge past them, kicking them both down simultaneously before continuing to make her way to Mesmero. Her teammates had taken down their one-on-one rivals and were now running by her side, ready to help her and hold anyone off that was trying to prevent her. Nightcrawler teleported behind him, but Magneto sent a large metal table his way, Shadowcat—rather reluctantly—reaching him just in time to phase him through. Rogue and Spyke were ready and attacking Magneto, throwing spikes to her so she could use Gambit's power and throw them at Magneto, making them explode anywhere near him. They seemed to be keeping him busy enough, so Mneme concentrated on Mesmero. Nightcrawler had him in a chokehold, while Shadowcat was waiting for the right opportunity to step in. When he fell forward, Shadowcat put her hands on his back after Nightcrawler jumped out of the way, and then she phased him arms through the floor.

"Do it now!" she yelled, urging Mneme to knock him out before he got a hold of anyone's mind. Mneme ran forward and cocked her arm back, getting ready to strike the back of his neck with her elbow, but suddenly Pietro was crouched in front of her, somehow able to escape being held by the vines. Mneme froze uncertainly, not wanting to even attack a simulation of her beloved Pietro.

_Why is the Professor doing this to me?_ she asked herself sullenly.

"Vhat are you vaiting for?!" Nightcrawler urged.

Mneme lowered her arm and bowed her head: She couldn't do it, not even a simulation. Backing away, she withdrew all intention of attacking. Rogue noticed what was happening and jumped to her aid, putting a hand on Mesmero's face and absorbing all his power, then standing to take control of Magneto. Forcing him to stand on the ground instead of being in the air, she placed a hand on his face also and took his powers as well. All around the X-Men students were stirring and getting up, then the simulation flashed a few times before returning to its original Danger Room state.

Xavier and the rest of the faculty were waiting for the tired students at the dining table, slightly disappointed in them. They each took their seats at the long table, not very pleased with their performance either. "Jean, Scott—that was probably the worst from you two that I've seen yet." he said to them bluntly. "Although you were only trying to do the right thing, you need to be more aware of the possibilities." Jean nor Scott could make eye contact with them, knowing that they had been tricked twice by Mastermind: After making their way above the trees, they were traveling towards the tree, but never seemed to get any closer—which is why they never showed up at the battle scene.

"But don't take it too harshly," Ororo said to them softly. "You did well otherwise, and your powers have improved incredibly on scale." Even those words sounded reassuring, they brought no comfort to the two eldest students.

"Kurt, Kitty, you did well on your own, but it was extremely foolish to split up your group do to such an inferior disagreement—and for some reason I feel that you weren't really speaking your true thoughts, Kitty," the Professor continued. "What were you two thinking?"

"Ve veren't…" Kurt said ashamedly, Kitty not willing to admit aloud how wrong it was of her to behave the way she did.

"Evan, you did particularly well compared to the other presentations I saw today." Xavier complemented. "Though I saw at one point where you had a bit of a mishap when you hit the ground—I'm guessing that shower of spikes was unintentional." Evan was pleased with the corrective criticism and the complement, since he never really got as much credit as the others it seemed. "Rogue, I was impressed with your achievement, especially how well you handled so many strong powers." Of course, since the simulation was over, she didn't possess those three powers anymore, but she had done a good job with them.

"You did good stepping in for Mneme," Logan reminded, quite proud of his favorite student.

"Yes, Mneme…" Xavier said with heavy discontent. "Although you used your one power very well, your weakness towards Pietro was very noticeable and could be fatal—"

"_What_ are you talking about?!" Mneme demanded crossly. "Pietro would never do that to me!"

Xavier sighed; he had expected her reaction to be as such. "You're not completely sure of that, though. He might just be posing as your friend or closer just to find out information or to lure in to a trap—"

She slammed her fists on the table, her hair rising in the air with her anger. "That's not true! Pietro would _never_ attack me or betray me, I'm sure of it!"

"You've got to understand—" Ororo started, but she was interrupted.

"No, YOU need to understand!" Mneme snarled, the lights flickering as her energy increased, shadows growing out of the edges of the room. "I love Pietro, and he loves me back, I'm sure of it! It's more than just a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship!"

Logan raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She grinded her teeth. "I'm not letting him take advantage of me, and he hasn't tried to do anything forceful. I trust him to the fullest extent, and what you did was wrong! Are you trying to turn me against him?" she challenged.

"Not at all," the Professor said calmly. "This is just a precaution, in case Pietro is planning to trick you." Rogue remembered when they had used her as an enemy in one of the simulations, and Mystique had twisted it around to make it sound like she was already a target, when they were just preparing the X-Men in case she was part of the Brotherhood.

The flustered girl yelled in exasperation, throwing her hands up to show that she wasn't even going to try to make them understand how strong their feelings were. Mneme stomped out of the room and up the stairs, flinging open her door and slamming it behind her. Thoughts were swimming in her head, making her doubt everything that she believed in at the moment. She glanced at her bed, knowing that she could escape all thoughts if she turned her collar to the first notch and went to sleep…

Ororo and Rogue were the main ones concerned for Mneme, but when they knocked on the door and entered the room she was under the blankets sleeping. "I guess she was tired from such a long day," Ororo supposed. Walking out to leave Mneme in peace, but Rogue knew better. She knew that Mneme didn't need sleep.

"Or maybe she's just trying to get away from all the pressure," Rogue thought aloud, low enough to where Ororo couldn't hear. She knew this feeling only too well, and she was going to do anything to help Mneme out of it. Closing the door, Rogue went to her own room to get away from her own thoughts and memories of Gambit.


	21. Chapter TwentyOne

_Well..._

_I'm sorry that I'm a couple of days late with the update._

_And that my pictures are taking so long. I'm going to disappoint you when you see how bad they are..._

_But whatever. Another boring chapter for you to read... I'm a little discouraged that I didn't meet my goal of 50 reviews..._

_But that's whatever also. The story must go on! Anyway, this chapter is boring and short. Sorry for the disappointment..._

_Anyway, try to enjoy! I hope you like it! And if you have any ideas for names, go ahead and send them to me._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up._**

**Chapter Twenty-One**

Mneme opened her eyes wide, only to see an Olympic sized pool in front of her, flames all around the room. The heat was extremely intense, but for some reason her powers weren't working. Unconcerned, she crawled across the hot concrete, but was stopped abruptly by a shackle around her ankle. Paying no heed, she merely glanced at it before peering down into the water. A figure distorted by the rippling water seemed to be down there, thrashing wildly. Her eyes grew wide when she realized that it was Pietro. Immediately she tried to use her powers to lift him out, but they were still inaccessible. When she felt around her neck, there was her first collar—only there was no keyhole. She looked down at the helpless Mutant, also shackled, and he looked at her with pleading eyes.

Heart pounding, she knew that she must've been kidnapped in her sleep—how else was someone supposed to get to her unless her powers were "shut off"? More importantly, how was she supposed to get Pietro out? Yanking on her hair in frustration, the heat closing in on her, Mneme decided that her only option was to try and pull him out. She laid on her belly, outstretching her hand towards Pietro's, the chain pulling on their ankle to the point of bleeding. Their fingertips were mere inches away from each other, but no matter how hard either of them reached, it was impossible for them to touch. Mneme was getting to the point of panicking when she realized that the fires were getting closer and closer, but her main concern was Pietro—he'd probably been in there a good two minutes, so he was probably starting to run out of breath. _This is just a simply to tease me, for someone's own amusement,_ Mneme thought to herself. She shook her head to clear the thought and focused on her ankle, trying to see any way that her heel would be able to fit through the shackle, but it was gracefully bent to fit tight against her skin. Only one mutant was able to bend metal with that precision: Magneto. Mneme snarled, but looked up when suddenly the fire cleared to the edges of the room. "Pyro," she hissed, looking up at him. "What do you want?" she demanded, her voice coated with hate but hoarse from all the smoke.

He shrugged. "Just here to see how you're doing, and you're still alive, so you must be doing pretty well," he said, a wide and playful grin stretching across his face. Fire danced in his eyes, urging him to take his revenge on her—although it was simply a few comments from before, during the night of Pietro's and Mneme's date, Pyro was bound to hold a grudge on someone that spoke to him so lowly.

"Who's in on this?" Mneme yelled at him, her throat burning. "Is it just Magneto, or was it all your idea?"

"Whoa, take it easy!" he said, taunting her because he knew she was in such a bad situation. "Magneto's orders, it had nothing to do with me, besides the fact that I'll be the one setting you on fire, as I've attempted before—although you're not too powerful now, so I'm guessing you'll get nice and crispy this time," Pyro chuckled, pinching Mneme's cheek and shaking her head back and forth as if she was a toddler. She jerked away, not in the mood for his antics. "He told me that you have to die because you're the most power Mutant, blah, blah, blah, kill you since he doesn't want the X-Men to have you, and the silver rat over there," he continued, jutting his thumb over his shoulder in Pietro's direction, "is dying as his punishment, blah, blah, blah, in love with you, blah, blah, blah, lied to Magneto, not being himself, acting all nice around you, not being pompous as usual, and being a weak link, blah, blah, blah…the whole Magneto shebang." Mneme furrowed her brow angrily.

"So are you going to kill us?" she asked, looking up at him with the same hatred she held with Magneto. She glanced at Pietro, who had probably been holding his breath for about four minutes since Mneme woke.

Pyro tapped a finger on his chin, seeming to be thinking about it. But he wasn't. "I am, but it's a hard decision on whether or not I should make you suffer or not…" Mneme stiffened—she had to get Pietro out. She didn't care if she lived, for some reason, but as long as Pietro survived, she wouldn't care.

Forcing the thought of Pyro from her mind, she turned to look down into the pool, Pietro's eyes half closed. He was close to drowning, but the water was evaporating from the fire…. If he was able to hold his breath just a little longer, he might be able to get air. "Hold on, Pietro!" she pleaded, forcing the edge of the pool underneath her arm joint and separating it from the socket, dislocating her arm. Forcing back a painful scream, she used her right arm to direct it to Pietro since it hurt too much to do it normally, but he had passed out. "No, this can't be happening!" she said, angry with herself for not thinking of it before. Mneme was almost close enough to reach his head, but it wasn't enough to grip his hair. Quickly thinking, she used her right arm to pull her shackled leg out of its socket, which took a lot of strength, but her adrenaline powered her enough to get her through it. It was so painful to hold her arm reaching toward him that she actually started screaming in pain. From her collarbone down was still on the concrete, but the rest was over the pool. Hot vapor rose into her face, slightly clouding her vision. She moved her left arm over, finding that she was close enough to grab hold of his hair. He was sinking to the bottom from lack of air, though. His hands were lifted up from the declension, floating up while his head was sinking down. She reached out as far as she could, trying to get his hand, but she just couldn't reach, and then the fire was upon her.

Gasping, she sat up, eyes clenched tight, her throat burning. Sweat poured from her skin and her eyes still stung from the fire, yet she was only in her room. Looking out the window, she saw that the sun was just coming over the trees, indicating that it was probably about ten-thirty. She wiped the sweat from her face, and her heart still pounded. Vowing never to conceal her powers fully ever again, she turned her collar to the fourth notch, not quite sure if she was ready for the fifth one. When drops started hitting her blanket after she had cleared the perspiration, she noticed that she was crying. Her lip started trembling and before she knew it, sobs were escaping her mouth quite loudly. Mneme wasn't sure why, since it all had just been a dream, but she couldn't find a way to stop it.

"Mneme? Are you, like, okay?" Kitty asked from the other side of her door. Settling that she wasn't, Kitty phased in without permission, holding a foamy toothbrush in her hand. "What's wrong?" she asked, putting an arm around her friend. Mneme reached behind her and pulled out a pillow, stuffing her face in it to muffle the sobs. She shook her head and used her powers to stifle the crying, forcing it back inside.

"I…I just got scared, that's all," she assured, which wasn't very assuring at all because not much scared her. Kitty grimaced at her voice.

"It sounds like you just came out of a fire," she said concernedly. Mneme frowned at how right she was. "And you're all sweaty. What happened? Did you have another bad dream since you decided to go to sleep?" How did she know?!

Mneme looked at her with an odd expression. She didn't sense any new powers, so how was she figuring all this out? "Yes, it just frightened me, that's all. I—"

"Hey!" Kurt yelled in her face, teleporting onto her bed from who knows where. Kitty fell to the floor, but Mneme was unaffected. She caught the toothbrush before it hit the floor and handed it back to Kitty. "I heard you crying. Vhat's wrong?" Kitty glared at him, but he tried to ignore her. Kitty rose up and stared Kurt down, but he remained crouching over Mneme.

"She had a bad dream, that's what," Kitty explained, calming herself down before she blew any circuits. Kurt looked at Mneme with concern.

"That hothead vasn't in here like last time, vas he?" he asked, clearly trying to make a connection to Pietro. Mneme frowned at him, shaking her head and knitted her brows together with a slight discontent. He rubbed his chin in thought, which in Mneme's eyes didn't really fit because Kurt usually wasn't one to do thinking. "Vell, maybe you should come to church vith me."

"Church?" Mneme asked. It only took her a few seconds for her powers to figure out exactly what a church was. "I don't know…. I've never been to one of those before. I take that it's a Catholic church, right?"

Kurt nodded. "How did you know?"

Mneme's shoulders dropped with exasperation. "I have a ton of powers—don't you think that one of them would be able to tell what religion you are? Just like Kitty is Jewish."

"Oh…" the two said in unison, clearly surprised and not willing to underestimate her power limits.

"I guess I'll come. I should be ready by eleven, which is when it starts, right?"

"Yeah," Kurt said sheepishly, still not expecting her powers to see that deep into things. She snapped her fingers and was ready in an instant, her clothes formal and her hair braided. "Let's go get some breakfast!" Kurt yelled in excitement, jumping off the bed and over to the door.

Kitty raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you already have breakfast? I saw you in the kitchen," she pointed out, suspecting something.

Kurt raised his hands up defensively and put on an innocent face. "No, I didn't eat anything this morning—I vas just looking to see vhat my choices vere…"

"Then why is there a whole bologna sandwich in your stomach?" Mneme asked, giving Kitty something to work with.

Kitty's jaw dropped, looking at Kurt with pure disgust. "You had a bologna sandwich for _breakfast_ and you ate it _whole_?!" she said in disbelief, unmistakably disgusted.

Kurt looked at her expressionlessly. "Vould you like one?" he asked with a shrug. She pulled the head of her toothbrush back in response, ready to fling toothpaste foam at him. He teleported away just in time to dodge the froth, but the loud popping noise coming from the room below indicated where he was, so Kitty sank through the floor and chased after him, both laughing.

_They act perfectly fine together when they forget about Amanda and Lance…_ Mneme thought to herself. _So why can't they just forget about them and admit that they love each other? _It confused Mneme, perhaps because she didn't know as much about love as they did. It was said to be a complicated thing, but it wasn't complicated to her. Just choose who appealed to you most, get to know whoever it was, and then stay together and have lots of babies. Wasn't that it? Or was it something different? Mneme had the feeling that she was missing something…

A knock at the door made her jump almost out of her skin; she had been so absorbed by her thoughts that not even her automatic powers had sensed Jean coming. "The Professor would like to speak to you…now," she added when Mneme let out a small groan of protest. Without any further hesitation, Mneme stepped out of bed, the embroidered sea-green skirt she was wearing trailing on the floor, and teleported herself to the Professor's office. She saw him sitting by the window, looking out with a longing expression, not seeming to notice that she was there.

"You called?" she reminded, breaking his train of thought. Looking up from where he had been staring down into the yard, his eyes met hers with a slight frown. Mneme's insides felt tight with anger as she realized that he was going to comment on her behavior displayed the night before. "I wasn't overreacting last night!" she protested before Xavier had even spoken. "And even though the thought has weighed on my mind heavily, I still disagree that Pietro would ever do that to me—_ever_."

"Mneme, you seem to be forgetting that Quicksilver is Magneto's son, and his only son. He's not one prone to failure, so he's probably making sure Quicksilver doesn't slip up—on _anything_," he said reminiscently. Xavier was calm, completely understanding Mneme's point, but he wanted her to see where he was coming from.

She sighed, letting out her anger; after all, he was only trying to look out for her. "Thanks, but I'm certain that Pietro is more on my side than Magneto's," she assured with a confident smile. "If anything goes wrong between Pietro and me, which I doubt, it won't be because of him. Trust me, I can handle myself."

The Professor didn't look very convinced. "I know you can handle yourself, but if you get upset and start using your powers to express your emotion, I doubt we'll be able to handle you." Mneme's face fell; she hadn't thought of the others at all, and that made her feel selfish and ignorant. Shamefully she looked down at her feet. "You're an extremely powerful Mutant, and I don't want anything to happen to you or anyone else because of an emotional problem." Mneme looked up at him and tilted her head sympathetically, although she hardly had any sympathy for them at all. "Another thing I've noticed is that your personality seems to change ever so slightly each time you switch to a different notch on your collar." She looked up suddenly, knowing that he thought she was going back to her ruthless, uncontrollable state.

Holding up her hands in denial, she explained, "I'm not becoming an emotionless monster like before—I'm just figuring out my personality and such." Her voice sounded slightly desperate, clearly stating that she didn't want to go back to solitary confinement. "I promise you that I'll straighten everything out soon," she vowed with a reassuring smile. The Professor nodded, trusting that she would hold her word. "Well, it's almost eleven, so Kurt and I had better get going to the church," she said as she departed, teleporting to where Kurt was waiting outside with his button-up shirt tucked into some casual dress pants. Mneme fixed the collar to her own bottle green button-up. The breeze easily lifted the thin fabric to her long, layered skirt, her silhouette ever-changing against the concrete driveway.

"Thank goodness you're here," Kurt said with a tone of relief. "I thought you veren't coming for a few seconds." He held out his hand as an offer to teleport them both, but Mneme simply snapped her fingers and they were a few yards from the parking lot. Across the street, there was a man smoking in front of an apartment building, and in front of them was a tall white church with abstract stained glass in the tall windowpanes. The two walked across the parking lot and through the big doors leading to the chapel. Many people were sitting in the pews, but there were plenty loquacious ones standing and chatting. Almost like a routine, as soon as the priest came out, everyone locked it up and took their seats in the pews. Kurt and Mneme sat down in the back, her eyes glued to the priest with curiosity.

"Good morning, everyone," the old man said with a surprisingly loud voice. Everyone replied with a drone of greetings that couldn't be made out when said all at once.

"Guten morgen," Kurt said, his voice lost with the others. Mneme was silent, wondering why anyone would reply at all if their voices weren't even singled out.

"If you would please," he started again, "take out your bibles and turn to the first page of Genesis." Kurt opened the one he had brought along while Mneme had to resort to one of the ones provided, placed in holders along the backs of the pew. The pages of _The Holy Bible_ were thin and written in columns, the spaces between the words creating images unseen to the naked eye. Mneme looked at them with interest, seeing that a few of them were hands, a few were eyes. She read the page within a millisecond, ignoring what the priest had to say or what he read aloud. Turning the pages at an unbelievable rate, she was finished with the book in only a mere course of seconds, maybe three.

_Jesus._ Mneme said the name in her head, but even though she knew everything about every religion, there was something missing, something she didn't understand. He was kind and caring, but how could he give up his own life? —and just for Humans, who had betrayed him! It didn't make any sense to her. With a sigh of annoyance, she furrowed her brow and tried to make sense of it. After a few minutes she gave up, unable to tell heads or tails of Jesus's decision. Closing the book and putting it back in the holder, Mneme looked up when she felt a heat on her cheek, her powers making her skin sensitive. She squinted her eyes and looked through the wall and across the street, only to see the apartment building across the street was up in flames, people gathering around, too cowardly to rush in and save any victims. Alarmed, Mneme teleported out, using her powers to make sure no Humans noticed she was ever there. She pushed her way to the front of the crowd and looked at the building that had flames reaching desperately out each window. In the distance there was the sound of sirens coming faintly over the roars of the fire. Clapping her hands together and spreading her feet to brace herself, she faced her palms toward the building and a wide jet of water shot out at the flame, but it wasn't enough.

And Mneme knew this. People gasped and yelled as they realized she was a Mutant, stepping back away from her. She stopped, knowing she was going to have to either turn the dial on her collar or resort to something else. Deciding that releasing more of her powers was too risky, she produced a giant fire hydrant out of the ground, about twenty feet wide. People were yelling in fright, and at that point the two fire trucks had pulled up, but they saw that they were no longer needed now that a fifty-foot tall hydrant was putting the fire out. Mneme was standing in front of it, making sure that the water wasn't being shot out too hard; if it did, the building's bricks would get blown away and people could get hurt by flying debris or the water itself. She raised her hands and sensed all the individual beings inside, pulling them forward and phasing them through the walls. A few were slightly burnt, but most were unharmed. She lowered them to the ground, releasing her grip on them and returning the road to its original state once the fire was out. The shocked and crying people found their families, hugging each other in relief, glad that no one was hurt. The fire fighters went over and looked people over for burns and injuries, and Mneme just stood, about to walk away unnoticed when she saw a rolled up blanket on the ground. She stood still for a few moments, something telling her that it was more than just a rolled up blanket.

Her eyes were glued to it as she weaved throughout the urgent people, trying to get to the infant so she could reunite it with a worried mother or father. She dodged the people running around and trying to find loved ones or pets, and when she got to the sidewalk she knelt down next to the little girl. She was sleeping soundly, unaware of anything. "Let's find your parents," Mneme said sweetly, holding her hand to the baby's forehead and picking though her memories, trying to find out who her parents were. She couldn't find any remembrance of a mother, but she recognized the father as the man who had been smoking the cigarette right before she and Kurt went inside the church. The little girl's memory showed the father lighting a cigarette, walking across the apartment, and slamming the door behind him. Mneme could sense that the father didn't want to take care of the child on his own, and he didn't have any intentions of coming back. She pulled her hand away and drew in a sharp breath when she realized something. "You're a Mutant," she whispered, surprised. Mneme picked up the child and walked over to the dripping building, putting her hand on where the father had been leaning on the wall. She closed her eyes and saw what the man had done after they went into the church: He had been smoking, and after one last drag of the cigarette he tossed it into the window that he had left open. Apparently their apartment had been on the bottom floor. _So was him who started the fire? He was trying to kill this baby…_ Mneme concluded, opening her eyes and returning her attention to the girl. She had dark green spikes that fell over her face for hair, and her peachy skin was toned with pink cheeks.

_Pop!_

Kurt appeared next to her, a ring of smoke dissipating from his teleportation. "Vhy did you leave? I looked over and you vere gone. Is everything—whose is that?" he asked, stopping in mid-sentence abruptly. His worried look clearly showed that he expected something out of the ordinary.

"She's mine now." Mneme answered, stroking the baby's soft cheek gently.

Kurt yelled in unease and jumped backwards; he obviously hadn't expected that. "Vhat, are you crazy?! You could get in so much trouble for taking someone's baby!"

Mneme looked up at him with a heated expression. "She has no parents; her father left her, and I'm not leaving a Mutant to the orphanage—who knows how they would discriminate her, or possibly lead her down the wrong path?" She scooped her up in her arms and held her close. "I suppose I should go back home—are you staying for the rest of the service?" Kurt shook his head.

"Vonce they saw that the people vere getting out of the fire, they all came rushing out." He gestured with his thumb behind him, and indeed the churchgoers were outside, curious about what had happened.

"Alright. Let's go. I have to tell Xavier about this," Mneme said, taking Kurt's arm and teleporting them into the courtyard, where everyone was enjoying the sunshine. Xavier was next to Hank, watching the teens play basketball, who were cheating with their powers occasionally. Mneme held the baby close, making it seem like nothing but a rolled up blanket in her arms.

"Back so soon?" Hank asked, his voice, as usual, very friendly.

Kurt nodded. "The building across the street vent up in flames, but Mneme put it out and saved everyone." She outstretched her arms to reveal the girl, still sleeping. Xavier and Hank looked at it curiously, awaiting an explanation.

"She has no parents—her father left her and set the apartment on fire. She's a Mutant," she added, clearly showing that she was expecting her to stay. Hank gave him an uneasy glance, but Xavier stayed looking at Mneme. "She can't go to the orphanage—what if she hurts someone? Or what if they mistreat her?" she said challengingly, trying to convince him that the girl could stay. Xavier closed his eyes and clasped his hands over his mouth, unsure of what to tell her.

He couldn't keep a baby at the institute without the parents' permission; it was the law. But if what Mneme said was true, he couldn't leave the baby alone or in the hands of an uncaring father…. "If you can get some adoption papers filled out and possibly get the father to sign it—"

A puff of smoke appeared and a pile of papers emerged in the air. "Here they are, completely filled out and _legally_ signed by the father." She grabbed them out of the air and handed them to Xavier.

Xavier sighed; he knew that the father hadn't really agreed and that Mneme just used her powers to make him hold a pen and sign his name, but how could he refuse a Mutant in need? Especially a baby? "Alright, she can stay."

"Who can stay?" Jean asked curiously, overhearing, completely disrupting the basketball game.

"What? Is there, like, someone knew?"

"It'd better not be Maximoff…" Evan said with a vengeance, walking up behind everyone else as they gathered around. Mneme pulled the blanket from over the child's face so they could see her.

"Aw!" Kitty squealed, covering her face with her hands in her excitement. "She's adorable!"

"I want one," Jean said jokingly as she ruffled the child's hair. Scott tensed up a bit and looked slightly worried at her words.

"Where'd it come from?" Rogue asked her with a hint of disgust in her voice, knowing that she couldn't have become pregnant and birthed something overnight—or could she have? Mneme's powers enabled her to do a lot of things, that possibly being one of them…

"What'd you name it?" Evan asked, glad that Pietro wasn't going to be joining the X-Men. Mneme shrugged.

"Oh, you should name her Chelsi!"

"Ew! No way! You should totally name her Kelsie."

"What about Helga?"

Everyone looked at Jean with concern: Helga wasn't exactly the most impressive choice.

"Well, since I'm going to be taking care of her, I guess I'll have to think about it before I put her name on the birth certificate," Mneme said, walking past everyone and towards the mansion.

"Wait…there's no name on the birth certificate?" Scott asked, scratching his head.

The others just shrugged, not knowing what Mneme was talking about. In truth, the baby came with a name, but she planned to change it on every single document in the world—not that her name was on very many documents—with just a snap of her fingers, but first she had to decide on a new name. She walked inside the house, up to her room, and made a big cushy crib appear next to her bed. She placed her inside and looked down at her, excited to know what her power—or powers—would be when she got older. "You can get out of my closet, you know," she said, redirecting her focus from the crib. "I knew you were there as soon as I turned the dial on my collar." She looked at her closet door, and when he refused to get out, Mneme pulled him forward with her telekinetic powers, revealing Mastermind, an odd looking fellow with dark circles under his eyes. "Why did you give me that dream?" she asked sternly, stepping over to him. "Well? Talk! I know you're not a mute!" Mneme spat, looking him in the eye with a threatening glare. Gritting her teeth, she produced a jeweled sword out of thin air, pointing it at his throat.

"Wait!" he pleaded, not willing to give his life for a stupid mission. "These could be used to your advantage," he said lowly. Mneme wrinkled her brow.

"What do you mean?" she asked, sensing that he was telling the truth. He didn't hesitate to answer.

"Magneto has been ordering me to torment you with dreams, which was difficult since you never go to sleep, and I don't want to do it, so I've been giving you hints of possibilities you while still making them perturbing enough so where I won't get in trouble…"

Mneme narrowed her eyes. "You're the one who gave me the first dream!" she accused, recognizing the voice. "How are those supposed to help me?!"

"Please, you must understand that if they didn't frighten you, I'd be punished…" Mastermind was trembling as the point of the sword faintly touched his neck. "The first one was so you wouldn't travel back in time and not kill your parents—because that would've made things even worse for you." Mneme's face softened with realization when she heard this: She had never thought about traveling back in time, and her parents probably would have used her for profit if she had, so, like Mastermind said, it was probably best for her that she didn't. "And the second was to warn you what will happen if Quicksilver stays with you."

Her heart stopped from shock, but it wasn't like she needed it anyway. "Explain," she demanded, her face turning hard as granite again.

Taking shallow breaths, he explicated, "Magneto isn't very happy with Quicksilver—in fact, he's already beaten him a few times, but he won't give in. He says he's never going to leave you, so Magneto just gave up and left him in the cell, solitary confinement." Mneme felt a pang in her chest: Pietro was putting up with beatings just to be with her. Did he really think that much of her? "He's thinking of ways to separate you two, and so far he's found nothing." Mneme held the blade sideways against his throat, threatening to slice it open.

"If you ever speak of this to anyone," she said in a hostile hushed voice, "I find you in half a second and make you suffer for a whole eternity. Understand?" Mastermind nodded, so Mneme continued, "If I find you back here, you'll be dead before your brain will even be able to process your next thought." And with that, she backed away and snapped her fingers, the sword and Mastermind disappearing. She straightened up and looked out the window, thoughts of her dreams clouding her mind like a storm a Saturday with plans. _Why does it mean so much to Magneto for us to be separated? _Mneme asked herself, pondering the thought, but the fourth notch in her collar wasn't releasing enough power for her to pry through faraway minds—not Magneto's, anyway. She knew that he was extremely skilled in concealing his whereabouts and such from others… _More importantly, what should I do about Pietro? _She considered a few possibilities: Going to save him, letting him work it out on his own, just plain out eliminating all that were against her or the X-Men…

The question nagged her. Her heart was heavy, knowing that Pietro was being punished. He didn't deserve that, and even though Evan—and others—always said what a big jerk he was, she had never seen that side of him, so not even his personality could tip the scale and make that penalty valid. _But what if Professor Xavier is right? What if he is just putting on a show? What if he's really just a big jerk like everyone says?_ she reflected, doubting Pietro, and her towering faith in him started to crumble. But perhaps she was worrying for nothing; after all, Mastermind very well could just be lying about Pietro taking those beatings, even if she didn't perceive a lie…

With a sigh, she walked back over to the crib and looked down at the little girl. She should probably take her to Pietro, to show him the cute little girl and bust him out of wherever he was being kept, then maybe she could figure out more of what's going on with him and Magneto…


	22. Chapter TwentyTwo

_Update!_

_I'm still working on the pictures._

_You're all going to be so disapointed..._

_I lost fans! Or at least I think I did, because I've only had two people review for the las two chapters! :[_

_I'm going to cry, but that's okay. Anyway, I'm getting off subject..._

_Sorry this chapter is short and you'll probably be mad at me for it..._

_Yes, you deserve a longer chapter, but I couldn't do that. I'm just not talented enough._

_So, you learn more about Rogue's past relationship--which I made up--so that's a little interesting._

_It also ties in with one of the later episodes, so yeah. I like doing things like that. ^^_

_Also, you learn more about the baby. And she gets a name. XD_

_My story is almost over. About two more chapters and I'll be done._

_I'M SORRY! I'M JUST NO GOOD WITH STORIES!!!_

_I might make a sequel using the baby, so tell me if I should or not. ^^_

_Anyway, ENJOY!!!_

_AND REVIEW IF YOU'RE STILL READING MY STORY!_

_Well, only if you want to, I'm not forcing you, but I would like to know who's reading so I can thank you. XD_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme and the baby because I made them up._**

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

Mneme was walking outside to one of the main balconies to get a sense of where Pietro could be, when she saw Rogue leaning over the rail, her head resting sadly on her forearms. "Is everything alright?" Mneme asked, walking up next to her.

Rogue didn't budge when she answered, "Yeah, I'm fine." But her voice was heavy with thought and depression, and when Mneme leaned forward to get a look at her face, she looked miserable, probably on the verge of crying. Well, she would if she ever cried, but Rogue was so set on never crying that it was believable that she didn't have any tear ducts.

"No, you're not," Mneme said, lifting her butt up onto the rail, looking up at the deep mango sky. It was so odd to actually be able to see the dome shape of the atmosphere, getting deeper in color from the horizon to straight above them. "You're thinking about something, and I have a feeling that it's Remy." Mneme said, shifting her eyes to look down at Rogue. She merely tilted her head to lean on her cheek, confirming the depressing thought.

"Not too many people know that we've had…some sort of relationship before." Her eyes drifted downward, looking at the beautiful reflection of the pool, oranges and yellows and a tad bit of purple. Rogue's lips showed a ghost of a smile as she relived the memories. "It was great, him and me. After we first met on that bridge when Magneto and his henchmen were causing trouble, I couldn't stop thinking about him and that queen of hearts that he blew up in my face." Her sad chuckle showed that it had all been a bittersweet thing. "Then he showed up one day in front of the institute. I was the only one outside, so I walked up to him and asked him what he was doing here. He said he came to give me a letter. When I opened it, it was written in French, so I told him that I couldn't read it." Pausing, she gave what sounded slightly like a sigh, but not one of exasperation. It was more of a dreamy sigh, remembering the scene. "So he read it out loud in English, and his voice was so—and the words were—and when he was finished and I looked into his eyes…" For a moment she seemed to be getting excited, her heart racing just at the thought. And then she just seemed to melt, her arms hanging over the wooden rail, a smile on her face, and her eyes staring off into the distance. "So every night after that, I'd sneak out and he'd take me places, to clubs and restaurants, and he was a great gambler. How he would win so easily is unbelievable, and the way he'd throw those cards around was amazing."

"So what makes you so sad?"

Rogue's face returned to its grim expression, and she rested her chin back on her arms. "Everyone started getting suspicious of where I was at night and how I was acting so happy, and one day Jean saw him before I did. He was sneaking over to my room to take me to one of his favorite restaurants, and she attacked him. There was nothing I could do—I mean, I couldn't let them know about us, so I didn't stop her. He was able to escape through the front gates, and he saw me watching through the window when he looked back. The look on his face was o hurt, like I had betrayed him. And I did…" She took a breath, a heavy sigh escaping her mouth. "And Jean turned around to see what he was looking at, and she saw me, and she put two and two together, figured out what I'd been doing, and when she looked back…Remy was already gone. She looked so disappointed in me, and when I ran down to the front doors, Jean wouldn't even look at me. I begged her not to tell, but I just knew she would."

"What did Professor do when Jean told him?" Mneme asked, knowing how hurt Rogue must've been. Just the look on her face was enough to put someone in heartache.

"Nothing. I don't think Jean ever told him, and if she did he probably already knew. I suppose he was just letting me be a teenager…" Rogue furrowed her brow, mad at herself most likely. "I mean, I only let Jean fight so we could stay together, but he must've not understood because I haven't seen Remy since. Some things have to be done for two people to stay together, even if they seem wrong to one and right to another, you know?" she asked, but then she shook her head. "It doesn't matter; he must hate me for what I did…"

Mneme looked back up at the sky. "I'd doubt it." she told her with a grin, making Rogue lift up her head and look at her with surprise. "He's probably just thinking of another way to get with you. Maybe he's even spying on you," she hinted with a smirk, then disappeared to go find Pietro.

* * *

Mneme was lurking down a dark, damp hallway that was leading to where Pietro was being kept. She knew that the place was about a mile underground, one of Magneto's many hidden chambers. As she walked down the slightly declining metal floor, Mneme held the baby closer, even though it was mysteriously still sleeping. She guessed that it was only because babies needed a lot of sleep. Mneme used her mind to open the door at the end of the hallway, which was only a few yards away, and she lit the torches that hung on the walls of the room. Pietro was hanging helplessly, his ankles clasped to the ground and his wrists pulled out sideways by chains. Mneme ran up to him, her footsteps echoing off the round wall. "Are you alright?" she asked worriedly, but when Pietro looked up, his eyes were rimmed with dark circles.

"Thank fuck you're here!" he said gratefully, but his choice of words made Mneme question his sanity. "I haven't been able to look at a girl in so long…. Speaking of things I haven't been able to do, can you do me a favor?"

"Of course…" Mneme answered, a little wary.

"Oh, good, I thought you'd say no," he said with relief. "I haven't been able to move my hands, so you can't imagine how long it's been since I've been able to—what is that?" he asked, eyes wide and staring at the little baby girl. Mneme grinned.

"It's our adopted little girl!" she said with glee, propping the baby up so that their heads were next to each other.

Pietro looked relieved. "Wow, those electronic babies that they use for school classes look real. For a minute I thought it was an actually baby." He laughed at the absurd thought.

"What are you talking about? She's real," Mneme said, a little confused. Pietro's jaw dropped—was she being serious?! "I haven't decided on a name yet, so you can help now that you're here. Oh, that reminds me! Do you want to get out of those chains and come back to the institute? I couldn't think of any safer places, unless I build something…"

Pietro snorted defiantly. "Are you being serious? As soon as you get me out of these chains, I'm going straight back to Mystique's place—" he stopped, seeing the hurt look on Mneme's face. It was so adorable, curse women! _Why do they have to do that?! It's like cheating in a game; there's no way a guy can win!_ With a groan and an annoyed sigh, he agreed. "Fine. But I'm not joining you X-Geeks—not now, not ever." Mneme squealed in delight, using her powers to remove the chains and unlock the clasps holding onto his ankles. Pietro stretched out his stiff muscles and rubbed his sore wrists. With a snap of her fingers, Mneme brought them back to the Xavier Institute, right in front of the tall doors. Pietro looked up at them, not quite sure if he wanted to keep his word on this deal… _Wait—when have I ever kept my word?_ he asked himself, knowing that the solitary confinement must've really messed with his head.

"After you," Mneme said, opening the door with a swish of her free hand. Swallowing hard, Pietro walked in, for the first time not sneaking in. Even though he'd been in there before, it all struck him as something new now that he wasn't exactly a "bad guy". "Professor!" she called out, seeing him about to leave sight from the top of the staircase. He backed his wheelchair up, but was tempted to wheel away as fast as he could when he saw Pietro there—it wasn't hard to tell what Mneme was about to ask. Nonetheless, he put a smile on his face and looked down at the both of them.

"Yes, Mneme, what is it?" he asked pleasantly.

"Pietro needs a place to stay so that Magneto doesn't find him and beat his guts out anymore," she said with a smile, as if it were just a mild punishment, "and I was wondering if he could stay here until Magneto is taken care of."

"Taken care of?" Pietro asked, not sure if he liked the sound of that. There was a sigh before Xavier answered.

"What choice do I have?" Xavier asked tiredly. "It's not as if you can't just use your powers to convince me if I refused…" And on that note he moved his wheelchair through the doorway and down the hallway. Mneme looked a little stricken at first, but quickly retuned her big oblivious smile to her face.

"C'mon, I'll show you around!" she exclaimed, pulling Pietro's wrist.

"Show who around?" Jean asked, poking her head out from the dining room, but her face fell when she recognized that it was Pietro.

Kitty appeared behind her. "Someone new?—oh, never mind…" Her head disappeared behind the doorway, completely losing interest in this particular guest—or at least she hoped it was a guest.

Jean followed Kitty into the kitchen, wondering if Pietro was going to be staying…. The thought disturbed her, although she didn't know why. It just didn't seem right, Pietro staying at the institute, even as a guest…

"I've got to go ask the Professor something—I'll be right back to help teach you some cooking techniques…" Jean said, spinning on her heels and heading out.

"Okay!" Kitty said happily. "Don't forget about me after talking to the Prof.!" she called after her.

* * *

Xavier looked around at the students and teachers in his office after calling them all to a meeting about Pietro. "I know none of you agree with my descicion—"

"Damn right!" Evan said, clearly expressing his anger as he leaned against one of the bookcases. Ororo looked at him with surprise.

"Watch your mouth!" she said, just like any aunt would do. "Listen to what the Professor has to say."

"Thank you, Ororo," he said with a nod. "Now, Pietro doesn't seem to be taking a liking to his father, Magneto, anymore—or at least not as strong as his connection to Mneme. I suspect that she's just wanting him here to have some sort of family put together, since she never had the feeling of belonging." The others nodded, understanding a little better now. "Magneto will be after him, but there's no worry—Mneme will most likely have him within her senses at all times. Of course, there's always the issue of where he's supposed to stay. I'd give him his own room, but I'm not sure if he can be trusted…"

"Trusted with what?" Kitty asked curiously.

Rogue scoffed. "He's a teenage boy, plus he's part of the Brotherhood. What do _you_ think?" Kitty shrugged, honestly not coming up with anything. Rogue rolled her eyes at her incompetence.

"Anyway, I won't allow him to stay in Mneme's room, because that's just against household rules." Xavier closed his hands underneath his chin, resting his elbows on the desk as his eyes drifted over to Evan. The others followed his gaze, but it took a few moments for Evan to realize what was going on.

"Wait—_me_? HELL NO!" he shouted, standing up straight and shaking his head vigorously. Ororo smacked his head with the back of her hand.

"Watch your mouth!" she ordered. "You've known him the longest, so he'd probably be most comfortable in your room. Besides, it's a chance for you two to build up a friendship. Maybe you have more in common—"

"FUCK that! That silver rat is NOT staying in my crib! If I even SEE him anywhere near my room, I'll shove a spike straight up—"

"Evan!" Beast silenced his raving. "The Professor is right." Ororo had given up trying to stop his cursing by this point, so she just sighed and leaned her back on the bookcase.

"But he's _not_ right!" Evan protested. "Maximoff's got it out for me! All because I'm better at basketball than him, plus my uniform is cooler, but mainly because of the basketball thing…"

"If you don't shut up soon, bub, I'll have it out for you too," Logan threatened, rubbing his temple in irritation.

Evan crossed his arms and headed towards the door. "Fine, but I guarantee that by morning I'll either be injured or my stuff will be vandalized." And with that he left. The rest looked at each other, all thinking the same thing: What the hell is Mneme thinking?

* * *

"And you already know where my room is," Mneme finished the tour, dragging a nearly sleeping Pietro by the wrist. "Here, you should get to know her since you're her daddy." Thrusting the baby into Pietro's arms, he woke up instantly, and so did the baby. Her eyes narrowed at him, as if she was able to make up her mind about him at that age. Producing a bottle from midair, Mneme handed it to him. "There. You can feed her first."

"Are you sure, Mneme?" he asked, really wanting to get to bed or take a shower. "I mean. I've never even held a baby before, let alone fed one…"

"There's nothing to it!" she assured with a big smile. "Just make sure that you hold it at the right angle—not parallel to the wall—so that she gets the formula and not air. And if you see some dripping out of her mouth, make sure she's not trying to drink too much. And if she's done, you can burp her too."

"Ugh…" Pietro groaned in exasperation. "You say it like you've done it before—or you've read a whole series on it…" His tired expression showed how much he was up to the task, which wasn't much, probably 0.%, the other 99.% wanting to relax. Mneme looked at him, wondering if she should take the child back and leave him to rest.

"Maximoff!" a familiar voice called from down the hall, and Pietro wasn't sure if it was welcome or not—it depended on what Evan had to say. As he approached, his eyes narrowed, Evan studied the dark circles encasing Pietro's eyes and his tallow look. "You're bed's set up in my room, so that's where you'll be staying—" Before he knew it, Pietro had given the baby back to Mneme and zoomed over to Evan's room. He had specifically remembered that one while on his second tour of Mneme's, since he planned to raid Evan's room or something. But, deciding that Evan's words were quite welcome, he had a feeling that he was going to like his stay a lot.

Evan groaned and walked in the direction of his—and now Pietro's—room, while Mneme walked into her own room with the little girl. She was going to need a name soon. Sighing because she didn't know what would suit the beautiful little girl, Mneme put her in the cushy crib and sat on her own bed, looking down at her. Her eyes were closed again, seeming to be relaxed around Mneme. "Can you open your eyes for me, chicky?" she asked pleasantly, and the baby opened her eyes and looked at her. The irises were as black as her pupils, and although they were black, they were bright with emotion and intelligence. Suddenly a blue swirl started inside the black, like a cyclone. Mneme's eyebrows were raised with curiosity as her whole iris was transformed into a color that was bluer than the sky and seemed deeper than the ocean. Suddenly a sphere of water was created in midair, growing until it reached about a foot in diameter. Then it transformed into a ball of fire, her eyes transitioning from blue to bright red, flecked with yellow. When her eyes grew to a luscious green, the sphere seemed to turn inside out, becoming a ball of vines and flowers. "You can create and convert elements!" Mneme concluded, very impressed with a baby's ability to control her powers. "That's amazing—not many Mutants develop their single power so quickly, let alone use it." The sphere burst into a curly wisp of green smoke when the girl yawned. "Iris…would be a perfect name for you," she said with a happy smile. Iris, meaning "rainbow" in Greek, was a good way to describe her ability to control the elements and the many colors her eyes changed. Of course, Mneme hadn't even seen the half of her powers, but she was just a baby…

Certainly there was much more to come. But for now the little angel was going to sleep.

* * *

Everything was sound in the Xavier Institute…or for a few moments, at least. Everyone woke up to the sound of nearby explosions, _very_ nearby. Logan sat straight up in bed, knowing that it must have something to do with the silver rat. He sprinted his way down the hall, claws extended, and busted open Evan's door with a thrust of his foot, only to see Evan standing in front of the door with his boxers on.

"Whoa, man, put those things away!" he said nervously as he backed away from Logan's claws, which were pointed straight at his chest. Logan sheathed his claws and straightened up.

"Look who's talking," he said, referring to the fact that Evan's arms and back had spikes protruding from every inch of skin. "Well? Where is he?"

"I was going to ask you the same," Evan said with a shrug, but it didn't take them long to come up with the only other room he'd go to.

"Mneme's!" they said in unison, and started running down the hall and over to her room. Jean, Kitty, and Storm came from the opposite direction, Scott, Beast, and Rogue behind them, everyone in their pajamas. Kurt, apparently, was sleeping through it…

"What's goin' on in there?!" Rogue asked in slight irritation and alarm. "Two in the morning is _not_ the time to be doing this!"

Extending his claws, Logan pushed his way to the front and kicked the door open, and the sight made everyone stare with their eyes wide. "What the…?"

Mneme was jumping from foot to foot, her hands covering her face in horror, as if she didn't know what to do, and Pietro was on top of her vanity, clinging to the mirror like he was scared out of his mind. Ashes were all over the floor in separate piles, and the worst part was that they were both staring at the baby that was crawling on the floor. So…they were scared of a baby? Her little footy pajamas were white with tiny rainbows all over it, and her laugh was so adorable. Her eyes glowed a bright scarlet from what the X-Men could see, and as she crawled closer to the vanity, the more scared Mneme and Pietro seemed to be. "No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no!" Pietro said shakily, pressing himself against the vanity even more. Before the baby could touch it, Pietro ran onto Mneme's bed across the room, his image a blur. When the little girl touched the vanity, it looked as if a bomb went off, making the X-Men gasp or scream in fright for the baby. Jean put her fingers to her temples and cleared away the smoke, and Scott was about to charge in and get her, but she was absolutely fine, sitting by the pile of ashes that used to be a vanity. She moved her arms stiffly, scattering the ashes across the floor.

"What's going on?" Logan asked tiredly, not happy at all with what he had to get up for.

"Iris was crying, and nothing I did seemed to be the problem, so I went and got Pietro," Mneme explained quickly, trying to keep an eye on the infant. "When we came back, her crib was blown up, and she blew up the dresser as soon as we walked in. After that, she's been trying to blow up Pietro, destroying my room in the process…"

"Mneme, can I just _not_ be her 'father'?" Pietro asked, his eyes growing wider as the baby noticed him and made her way over to the bed.

"What? No! I want her to have a normal life, and that includes knowing her father."

"Yeah, but I have to be ALIVE in order for her to know me! She won't even remember me from this age anyway!" Mneme rolled her eyes.

"You're a bigger baby than she is," Mneme said with a huff. Pietro zoomed over to her.

"If you didn't have all those powers, you'd be afraid of blowing up too!"

"Of course I would! But I do have all these powers, so—" Her voice was drown out by the bed exploding, reduced to a pile of ashes. The couple continued arguing, unaware of the baby crawling nearer or the X-Men—besides Evan and Logan—trying to warn Pietro. Before he knew it, Iris was standing up and tugging on his boxers. Her "parents" looked down at her with surprise, and she fell backwards. Pietro grabbed his boxers before she could accidentally pull them down, and he noticed that her eyes were back to their original shiny black. He picked her up before she could start crying, and she smiled a toothless smile up at him, a giggle escaping her mouth. Mneme, happy that Pietro was finally taking a liking to her, hugged him tightly.

"I'm out," Logan said with disgust, pushing his way out of the room, followed by Rogue, whose nose was also wrinkled in repulsion. Everyone else sighed—what a waste of time!—but Ororo smiled to herself as she walked down the hallway; she had most certainly been right from the beginning, and she was able to prove the Professor wrong about the one time they didn't agree.

* * *

Piotr sat in an alley, contemplating on whether or not he really wanted to go through with his mission. Jason had come back the day before telling Erik that Mneme had a baby now. He didn't want to hurt a mother, especially a highschool mother, but then again he didn't want his family hurt either…. Monday was the last day for Pietro to convince Mneme to join Erik, but it didn't seem that he had any intention of doing so. Piotr peered from the dark alley, seeing Mneme walking to school with Pietro by her side, both of them laughing and looking down at little baby in a diaper and T-shirt. The woman called Storm was walking behind them, and when they came to the school grounds Mneme handed the baby to her, giving a few parting words. Pietro had his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face as he waited, and as Mneme turned back around, they clasped hands and walked over to the school. With a sigh, Piotr knew he was going to have to follow through with it.

* * *

Pietro stood by Mneme at her locker as she gathered her books together, and he noticed that he had either gotten taller or Mneme had shrunk. He silently chuckled to himself; she was so short, it was amazing how so much power was concealed in such a small space. It was also amazing that for once only one girl—instead of three or four—was able to keep him satisfied…well, so far. He still hadn't got everything he wanted, but that didn't matter since he realized that he didn't really care whether or not he was able to sleep with her. _That's weird…I never thought that would happen._ Pietro thought to himself, not too sure if he was going crazy or not. When Mneme had her books gathered in her arms, she was about to walk by, but grabbed his collar with her free hand and pulled him down, her lips nearly touching his ear. "Ooo, feeling forceful, are we?" Pietro said with a wide grin, a chuckle escaping his mouth.

"No," Mneme said, sounding a little taken aback that he would assume that. "I'm just telling you that Colossus is nearby, so stay on your toes. He could be after you or me, so it's better if we both stay alert," she told him in a low voice. She pressed her lips on his cheek for one spontaneous moment, a feeling of warmth spreading from her touch, and then she walked off to her class. Pietro looked down at the ground blankly, his emotions mixed with staidness and jubilation. He paced the school hallways aimlessly, dodging out of sight whenever a teacher or such came, and every time he came to a window he would stop and look for any signs of Piotr, his face solemn and set in stone.

At lunch, Pietro walked in, casting a stare over at the Brotherhood's table emotionlessly, and they mirrored his impassive look. He grinned at them and at himself, not believing that he had ever hung out with such a pack of losers…. The Brotherhood members looked at each other, not quite understanding the point of it all, but Pietro pulled out his seat by Mneme, who smiled sweetly up at him, and sat down. "So, what's shakin'?" His toothy grin was reflected in his eyes as he glanced at each of the X-Men, who stared back blankly.

"Um…nothing much…" Scott said, rubbing the back of his neck during the awkward situation.

"Vhat's up vith you?" Kurt asked politely with a shrug. By now Pietro's smile didn't fade, even after seeing that he wasn't exactly welcome by them, especially Evan, who continuously glared at him. Pietro leaned back in his seat with his hands behind his head, not really caring about much.

"Today's probably going to be the day that Magneto attempts to kill me," Pietro said simply, giving a small laugh.

"Kill you?" Kitty asked, curious of why Magneto would have his son as a target.

"Yeah. For lying to him, not following his orders, and probably for hanging out with you guys when he finds out." Pietro listed them off with a shrug. "I can't really understand why he didn't like where I was headed…" Now that he thought about it, he couldn't really understand why he looked up to his father so much in the first place. Someone that stingy just couldn't be a role model, not even with all the power that Magneto had.

Mneme looked deep in thought, her brow furrowed. "I wouldn't want Magneto coming to the institute—that would cause too much havoc," she pointed out. "News crews would be filming from all angles, and innocent people could get hurt. No, we're going to have to get him somewhere else."

* * *

After a slow and quiet lunch, the X-Men and Pietro went their separate ways, Mneme ending up at her locker with Pietro next to her again. "Did you see Colossus at all?" he asked her, arms crossed and back against the lockers.

"No, I've lost all sense of him. He must have moved on about thirty minutes ago when lunch started…" Suddenly she dropped all her books and stared blankly at nothing, finally realizing what was going on. "Logan went with the Professor and Beast to get the younger Mutants, which means Ororo is all by herself, so if he hasn't gone after me or you yet, that means that he's gone after—"

"Iris!" Pietro gasped, and Mneme took his hand, teleporting them to the Institute. They burst through the front doors, only to see that everything was a mess, scorch marks and scores and holes in the wall. Everything was covered in shadows, and Ororo was lying on the ground unconscious, Pyro standing over her.

"G'day," he greeted, his grin stretching from ear to ear. "I s'pose you're here to get your little girl, ay?"

Mneme glared. "What did you do with her?!" she demanded, her fists clenched, eyes glowering.

After a small laugh, he answered, "Colossus has pro'lly already made his way to wherever he was taking that little girlie."

Mneme growled. "I'll shred you to pieces!" she yelled out, her voice echoing through the empty place. Pyro looked over his shoulder, Sabretooth and Gambit appearing out of the shadows, Mastermind on his other side. Mneme had already sensed them there, but Pietro hadn't been expecting them.

"I'd like to see you try," Sabretooth challenged, extending his nails out.

Gambit looked around. "I didn't think the next time I'd be in this place it'd be for stealing a baby and then fighting one of Rogue's friends."

Mneme waited for Mastermind to say something, but he stayed silent. _Colossus is headed south. Go find him and get Iris,_ she said telepathically to Pietro. Instantly he ran out of the front doors.

"Hey! He's getting away!" Pyro said angrily, running up to the doors, but Mneme closed them with her powers, producing a giant lock holding the two handles together.

"No one's getting out until I get defeated or Pietro comes back."

The other four looked at her, then Pyro laughed. "What's the point? It's four against one, and it's not like you can use your full powers, mate." Mneme narrowed her eyes, and he was slammed against the door, ricocheting off and hitting the ground. He woozily stood back up, straightening himself. "Well don't just stand there! Attack her!" he commanded, and at once the other three started attacking.

Sabretooth lunged at her, but she easily jumped a few yards to the side, only to duck to miss being hit by one of Gambit's cards. Mneme crouched down to miss being hit with a stream of flame, which came back around for another try. She leaned backwards, her knees bent so her calves were parallel to her thighs, her feet touching her hips. Her arms shot up, taking hold of the flames and targeting Pyro. But he disappeared when the flames hit him. Mneme sat up, her face full of confusion, when she noticed that it had been Mastermind's illusion. Shaking her head and getting back to reality, Mneme jumped, an extremely hard thing to do when sitting with your legs bent beside you, to dodge more cards. They blew up underneath her, thrusting her further into the air. She flipped forward, landing next to Sabretooth. He was extremely skilled with hand-to-hand combat, so she decided to go for it. He slashed at her with both hands, which to dodge she slid to the side. He moved with lightning speed, but her powers enabled her to detect his next move, so beating him wouldn't be too hard. She aimed a punch, moving just as fast as he was, but he blocked it. Her strength sent his heels digging into the floor, but he quickly countered it with punch aimed at the jaw. She ducked down, not realizing that his other hand was aimed for her stomach, so his second fist collided with her face, sending her back and easy ten yards. Mneme flipped her legs upwards, sending her into a semi-back flip so she landed on her feet. When she looked up, a rain of cards was ignited with Pyro's flames, ready to blow up on her. She teleported, ending up next to Mastermind, and her hand was pressed against his face accidentally. She instantly received some of his memory, but pulled away quickly. She saw that Mastermind knew where Magneto was, and that Magneto was planning for her to win this fight.

"Magneto's in Antarctica? Waiting for me?" She was slightly confused, but her train of thought was soon changed when Sabretooth clawed her back. It healed in a second, but Mneme was thrust to the ground, but rolled over and, pushing herself up with her hands, kicked Sabretooth in the chest. He was sent flying, hitting his head on the large lock that was holding the doors together. It was easy to tell that he was knocked out as he slid to the floor limply. Pyro sent more flames her way, and she turned to start running, but her face hit Gambit's staff. Her feet flew out from under her, and she landed on her back. Eyes opening slowly, she realized that the flames were about to hit her straight in the face, so she rolled over onto her side and thrust her hands out, taking control over the fire. She propelled it towards Gambit, who nimbly dodged it with a handspring, which made Pyro the target since he happened to be standing behind him. Pyro—unable to overcome Mneme's control—was unable to stop the fire, and he was hit and thrown against the wall. As that was happening, Mneme used her foot to trip Gambit, who was just landing from his back handspring, and then used her other foot to kick him in the back of the head as he fell. Now that he was knocked out, there was only Mastermind. Taking Gambit's staff, she simply cracked the poor defenseless fool in the face, sending him in a heap on the floor. After that, Mneme fixed the room's damages with a few swishes of her hands and then tended to Ororo's wounds.

* * *

Pietro was hot on Colossus's trail, following him deep into the forest. It was dark, and he was tired from lack of sleep, but he could hear Iris's faint cries, and that was enough to keep him going. Suddenly everything was quiet, not a single chirp of a bird, cry from Iris, or chatter from a squirrel. "Iris!" he called out, wondering if the baby would respond. He heard a crackle behind him, and when he turned around it felt like he had been hit in the face with a metal pan. He hit the leaf-strewn ground, looking up to see the shadowed face of Colossus. Pietro jumped back up, ready to fight since he saw that Iris was not in his hands, and started running around him, making a tornado. It picked up leaves, making it so Colossus couldn't see, but he simply stuck his hand out and Pietro collided with it, making him back up and try to regain his vision. Quicksilver could feel the hot blood flowing down from his nose, but he wiped it away with his hand. But it wouldn't stop bleeding…. Quicksilver shook his head and tried to see straight, trying to tell which of the multiple Colossuses was the real one. "Ugh…" Blinking slowly, he could see a few fists coming, and that was enough to make him duck down. He darted forward, trying to go through his foe's legs, but he ended up slamming into a metal kneecap. Clutching his head, he fell back onto his butt. Colossus picked him up by the head of his hair and threw him into a tree, causing major breakage in the trunk. Quicksilver slid down, feeling very groggy.

"If you run," Colossus tipped him off, "I won't have to do this." It sounded as if he didn't want to hurt Quicksilver at all.

"No…" he replied, taking deep breaths. Reluctantly, Colossus stomped forward and lifted Quicksilver by his collar, making him stand. The younger boy put his hands up, willing to fight, but he still couldn't see straight. Colossus held his own hands up, and before Quicksilver could even find his bearing, he had been punched in gut. Doubled over, he felt that same metal kneecap strike his face. Quicksilver stumbled backwards into the injured tree, clutching his bleeding bruised face. He could tell that his nose had been broken, and his lip was swollen and gushing. He spit, trying to clear his mouth so he could breathe.

Colossus stepped over to him. "Run. Now."

Quicksilver looked at what he thought to be the correct Colossus, but all the images were swirling, overlapping and making it so hard to think right. "Never," he managed, blood spurting from his mouth as he spoke. If only he could see straight…. But he didn't stand a chance against the metal man. There was no way he would ever be able to hurt Colossus, even if he was able to see straight and his powers were amplified ten times over.

Shaking his head at the foolish decision, Colossus picked him up by the neck, pivoted, and thrust the thin boy into the ground headfirst over his shoulder. Somehow, the boy didn't give in; it was clear, as Quicksilver stood up, somewhat hunched over from weariness, that he had absolutely no intention of giving up. Slightly shocked, Colossus's face fell, and he brought his elbow down onto his back, sending his foe collapsing onto the ground. Quicksilver yelled in pain, and it made Colossus feel so horrible inside. Even though Quicksilver ached all over, after a few shallow breaths—which was all he could manage—he attempted to get up again. "Why don't you run?!" Colossus asked lowly, his voice pleading.

Quicksilver's trembling arms were able to lift him up, and he brought his legs up so he could stand. Once he was up as straight as he could get, he answered, "I'm…not leaving without that kid…" He stopped to take a few more shallow breaths. "And even though I don't know her…she's my responsibility now, and I…love her because she's my daughter…" Quicksilver's eyes were hardly staying open now. "And if I don't get her back…Mneme's heart is going to break…and that's one thing that I won't let happen…"

Colossus's face softened up, his expression extremely apologetic. "I understand your condition," he told Quicksilver. "I, too, have family in danger. Had Magneto not threatened to hurt my family, I never would be working for him and doing these horrible jobs." Colossus sighed. "But I digress. You may have the girl back." Quicksilver smiled, though you couldn't tell because his face was too plastered with blood, not to mention swollen and bruised. Colossus walked away, coming back a few seconds later with a calm Iris. She looked up at Quicksilver, her face looking sad for him. He grinned at whichever Iris his eyes would drift to, and he reached out to take her from Colossus's gigantic hand. But his hands drifted around in circles as he tried to focus on the correct Iris, seeing quadruple of everything. But soon his eyes were shut and he fell forward, unconscious.


	23. Chapter TwentyThree

_Sorry it took so long._

_Even though I said I was going to end the story soon, I've been convinced to continue it. ^^_

_And even though this seems like it'd be the last chapter, IT'S NOT!_

_This chapter is dedicated to Dholefire for giving me an idea and reading my story! ^^_

_A special thanks to: Azusa-Phonos for talking to me and encouraging me to keep writing! THANKS!_

_Anyways, enjoy!!!_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution _or any of its characters._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris because I made them up._**

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

It would be cold to any normal Human or Mutant, but not Mneme. The vast and bare Antarctica was windy, only a few animals seen every so often. Before she had left, Mneme considered telling the others about what her plan was, but she decided that they would be against where she was going and what she was about to do—especially Xavier and Pietro. Xavier was always against violent solutions, and Pietro would be devastated if he knew what she was up to. It made her feel guilty that she was doing this behind his back, but he would be grateful afterwards.

So as she scoured the whole of Antarctica, Mneme eventually found him. He was standing on a blanket of ice that stretched far into the horizon. The sky was a dull gray, the wind gently blowing his cape. She was barely standing fifty yards away from the one person she hated most, the one she wanted dead, the one she would erase from the face of the planet.

"I've been waiting for you," he said to break the silence. "It seems you got my message. I just wonder what took you so long?"

"You're good at keeping yourself hidden from telekinetic powers," Mneme replied with a challenging grin. "But that didn't stop me from finding you." Her brow furrowed and her eyes lit up; this was the moment she'd been waiting for. "But I'll play fair. My automatic and defensive powers against yours." He threw back his head and laughed.

"You think I'm here to fight you?" His eyes narrowed as he lost amusement of her assumption. "I simply want to talk. If it comes to violence, so be it, but for now let's stick to dialogue." Mneme tilted her head to the side, not sure what to do; this wasn't the usually way he went about things. And what if it was all a trick? "I see that you've progressed excessively since you joined the Xavier Institute, and Quicksilver has done nothing more than anything you've ever asked him. He's even left his own team to be with you."

Something didn't feel right, and Mneme was unable to read his mind to figure out what it was. "What are you trying to get at?" she asked timidly, for once not knowing what to expect.

A ghost of a smile was seen on his lips. "The only question is if you would do the same for him." Mneme scoffed, but before she could answer, he continued, "Before you answer, I want you to take into consideration how he betrayed his team, his father, his leader, gave up his lifestyle, and even agreed to live with the people he hates in order to be with you."

Shaking her head in confusion, she asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Admit it, Mneme: You'd never be able to leave your friends, your mentors, Xavier, become a villain, and live with the Brotherhood." For a moment, Mneme wasn't sure if she would do any of those things, and Magneto saw it on her face. "Look me in the eyes and say I'm wrong!" he demanded, challenging her.

Shaking her head defiantly, she shot back, "You _are_ wrong! I'd do anything to stay with Pietro! I love him!"

For some reason he laughed, and it was colder than the air that whipped by them. "Go on, then. Join me. Betray your own team like Pietro betrayed his. You did say you'd do anything to stay with him," he said to her, outstretching a hand. Mneme's face fell; was it right to join him? She reached up to take it.

But she stopped and shook her head vigorously, trying to clear her mind. "You're not Pietro!" she shouted. "You don't know what he wants for me! He'd never want me to do something I don't want to, so he'd never want me to join you!" She backed away a few steps, holding her hands behind her back, as if that would help convince that she wouldn't take his hand and join him.

"Such a fake and defenseless lie," Magneto said, putting his hand back down to his side. "Have it your way." Fixing his gauntlet, he added, "Be prepared for the fight of your life." Instantly he lunged forward, taking a swing at Mneme, who leaned to the side to dodge it. Her mind was thinking about what he had just said to her, so no matter how hard she tried to lock her brain into attack mode, she was distracted. If he had planned to get her mind distracted, then it had been a trick after all.

She jumped back away from him, and saw that his hand was up, about to get a grip on her metal collar. Mneme deflected his powers, sending the magnetic waves back at him, and Magneto was sent flying backwards onto the hard ice. Mneme sprinted up to him, anger boiling inside her, but she still wasn't able to concentrate her mind fully on fighting. Even so, she jumped at least twenty feet in the air, diving down headfirst with her elbow cocked back, fist clenched tight. Her voice rang out, her adrenaline bubbling over the top, and Magneto rolled over just in time to avoid her deathly punch. The ice where her hand had plunged was cracked extremely deep, and when she pulled her fist out the crack stretched even further.

* * *

Jean and Scott were waiting in the car for the others, who soon turned up. Kurt and Kitty—along with Amanda—came walking out of the school, the Human girl holding Kurt's hand, and Kitty having a scowl plastered on her face. She threw open the car door and slammed it shut once in her seat, crossing her arms and averting her eyes as Kurt and Amanda shared a goodbye smooch. "Is everything alright, Kitty?" Scott asked, looking at her in the mirror. She didn't answer, but crossed her arms more tightly and jerked her head to stare at nothing angrily. Jean, being a girl, thought it was obvious what was going on, but guys just never would understand…. Kurt opened the other door and sat to Kitty's left, a seat in between them.

"See you later, Kurt!" Amanda shouted over her shoulder as she walked away.

"Bye!" he yelled back with a grin, waving happily at her. Kitty looked at him with a hurt expression, but his back was to her, so she had turned back around by the time he was sitting properly again. "Vait—I vas supposed to tell you something…but I can't remember vhat it is…" He hit his knuckles on his forehead a few times, as if that would help him think. "Oh yeah! Rogue says she's going to valk home today. I don't know vhy, though." Jean quirked an eyebrow at him, but Evan yanked her backpack out of her arms as he zoomed by on his skateboard.

Jean whipped around. "Hey! Give that back!" she shouted at him, but he was already out of the parking lot and making his way down the sidewalk. Jean was tempted to use her powers to snatch her bag back, but there were too many people around for it to be unseen.

Scott drummed his fingers on the steering wheel impatiently. "Now all we have to wait for is Mneme. Or do you think she's already at the institute?"

The other two shrugged. "Even if she isn't, she'll see that your car isn't here and just teleport back home." Kurt reminded, buckling his seatbelt. Scott nodded and started up the car, the engine firing up quite nicely. He pulled out of the parking lot and drove down the street, Jean's eyes searching for Evan so she could get her backpack.

Rogue walked out of the school, looking a little more depressed than upset. Something in her stomach kept lurching, and it had all started right after lunch. It didn't feel like she was going to throw up, but it certainly wasn't comfortable. She held her arms over her stomach, trying to make the feeling go away, but if anything it got worse. _It almost feels like one of those gut feelings that warns you not to do something…_ she thought to herself, wrapping her arms around her belly tighter. _But I've never felt something this bad…_ Walking across the lot and making her way over to the sidewalk, Rogue thought about what she ate over the past couple days, but somehow she knew that it had nothing to do with food. Wracking her brains, she found nothing that seemed unusual enough to cause such a horrible feeling.

Evan took some shortcuts through a few alleyways to beat the others home. At one time, he saw them waiting at a stoplight, easily surpassing them. When he got to the institute, he tossed Jean's bag by the door and kicked up his skateboard, catching it in his hands. "Hey, Auntie O!" he shouted in the desolate place. The floors were sparkling clean, and nothing had a spec of dust on it. But something about the whole situation seemed a little eerie…. "Auntie O?!" he called out again, walking up the stairs in case that would help her hear him. Suddenly he heard a muffled voice, and something told him that it wasn't a woman. Putting down his skateboard, his skin routinely started to harden up, a spike protruding from the top of each of his wrists. Walking down the hall, he could hear a few more voices, all of them vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite figure who it was. Then he came to a gray door, one that didn't match the others, and he'd never seen it before. Evan raised an eyebrow curiously, then opened the door, spikes raised and ready to attack.

"Your hand is touching my butt—!" They all stopped to look up at him. Evan's emotions were torn between hysterics and wonder, because in front of him sat Pyro, Sabretooth, Gambit, and Mastermind, completely bound together. It seemed that someone had come up with a crazy type of knot and tied their ankles, their wrists, bound their arms to their bodies, then tied them all together, the rope connecting each individual separately to the other three. Sabretooth looked so annoyed that if he could, he'd rip all of their heads off. To his left sat Pyro, who had been the one complaining, and he just looked up at Evan with some sort of look that shouted "I hate you so much! Untie me right now!" To Sabretooth's right was Gambit, who had the grimmest look of all of them, like he regretted ever joining Magneto. And Mastermind just looked apathetic. "Well? What do you want, mate?" Pyro demanded when he saw that Evan had no intention of untying any of them.

Furrowing his brow, Evan said, "Where'd my aunt go?"

"Your aunt?" Pyro repeated, being the talkative one. "We took care of her a long time ago."

"You _what_?!" Evan growled through gritted teeth, holding one of the spikes up to Pyro's throat. Pyro lifted his head nervously, trying to get away from the point.

"Take it easy, now, there's no reason to get upset…" Pyro swallowed hard, trying to convince him. Evan put down his arm, but didn't let his guard down one iota. "We just knocked her out, that's all."

Slightly confused, Evan asked, "So she didn't put you in here?"

He laughed loudly at the boy's stupidity. "What? Don't you think that Sabretooth can burst out of a regular rope like this? And have you ever seen someone tie a knot this complex? Or make a room fit between two bedrooms that are right next to each other?" He didn't wait for Evan to answer. "Of course not! Your little friend that we were waiting for made this rope indestructible! She tied us up just by snapping her fingers. Gambit couldn't even destroy the rope around his wrists, and she drained my flamethrowers." Now that Even took a good look at them, the whole group looked pretty beat up.

"But who are you talking about?"

"Mneme, you numbskull!" Pyro shouted, as if it were obvious.

Evan rolled his eyes at the name, but pressed on, "So where's Mneme and Auntie O?"

* * *

Pietro groaned and looked around, his vision very dim. Her tried to get a look on his surroundings, but couldn't make out any objects besides a window, so he guessed that he was in a house. Feeling around, his hand clutched something soft. "Ugh…pillow…" He propped himself up on the arm, but it immediately collapsed under the pressure. Yelling out in pain, he gripped whatever was closest with the other hand to try and relieve some of the burn and ache. Whatever he grabbed felt furry…

Instantly claws started digging into his forearm, making him jump off the springy bed in alarm, but his left leg immediately gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground. Yelling and swinging his arm, trying to get what off he thought was a cat, his head hit the leg of some piece of furniture, making him roll over and hold his hurt arm up to his head. Something tipped over—probably a lamp—from him hitting his head, on what was likely to be a bedside table, and the lampshade fell on the cat, infuriating it even more. It pounced on Pietro's face, and the lamp was on the edge at an angle, the only thing keeping it from falling was the plug. Pietro was able to wrench the cat off with his good arm, throwing it to the side. It collided with the wire, unplugging the lamp, and before Pietro could decipher what was above him, the base of it tipped the rest of the way over and fell right on his stomach. The air was knocked out of him, and the base of the lamp rolled across the floor, now the only noise. With another groan, Pietro sat up and rubbed his eyes with his right hand, brightening his vision slightly.

The room was mostly wood, including the furniture. Everything looked very old, but polished and well made. Pietro's eyes widened when he realized what was going on before he passed out—he wasn't quite ready to admit to himself that he was knocked out. But before he could do anything, an old man appeared in the doorway. He was nearly bald, thin, and hunched over. Even though his vision wasn't as good as it usually was, he could make out the wrinkled features on his face, and his bright blue eyes that showed pain and youth. He was holding a long stick in his hand and a length of cotton. "Good thing you're up, sonny. I've been waiting for you to wake for hours now so I can fix your broken arm and fractured leg." His voice was kind, but frail. Pietro looked at him cautiously; at the moment, he wasn't sure who to trust anymore.

"Where's Iris?" he asked, his own injuries not crossing his mind at the moment.

The old man walked past him, sat down, and gestured for him to sit on the chair that was next to his. It wasn't far, or very tall, but Pietro still had a painful and difficult time getting up. He understood that the old man was too brittle to help him. Once he was sitting, the man answered, "The baby, if that's who you're talking about, is with my wife," he said as he left the room. When he returned he was weakly dragging another chair in, setting it in front of Pietro. "Put your leg up on that."

Pietro was worried that Iris was going to hurt his wife, so he said, "Um, listen, I appreciate your help, but I don't think Iris should be with your wife."

The old man looked up at Pietro with a stare that was a little unnatural, like he was looking straight into his soul. Pietro shivered, and he was sure it was from that look. "And why is that?" he asked, looking back down at the leg. "And I meant your hurt leg, you buffoon. What would I want with your good leg?" he asked with a slight chuckle. Pietro would never understand the elder…. He had no problem bending his knee, but it was the pressure of putting it across the chair that made him wince.

Getting his bearings, he replied, "You see, she's not…like you." Pietro didn't want to totally expose her. "She's special. And I don't want your wife to get hurt because of her."

"We already know that she's a Mutant," he said bluntly. Pietro held his breath; how did he know? "My wife will be fine." There was an awkward silence before the old man gestured for him to pull the leg of his pants up. Pietro had a difficult time with just one arm, but he was able to pull it up above his knee. His eyes widened at the sight of a big purple spot that he had acquired on his shin. "You're lucky it's not broken. Healing this fracture won't take long, and it'll be less painful." The man held his gnarled hands about a quarter of an inch above the injury, and Pietro could feel the cold radiating off of him, but suddenly a searing pain coursed all over his shin, making him yell out in pain. "Hold still!" the old man ordered, his brow furrowed and beading with sweat.

"You could've warned me!" Pietro fussed, gripping the back of the chair, trying to hold still, but it felt like his leg was being fractured all over again.

And just like that the pain was gone. Pietro opened his eyes and looked down at his leg suspiciously. Amazingly, the bruise was gone, and when he felt his shin the fracture was gone. He gave a small chuckle of joy, happy that he could walk again. "Looks like we won't be needing this," the man said as he threw the stick over on the bed. Pietro thought he looked much older when he used his powers.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a Mutant?" he asked, a grin still stretched across his face.

He didn't answer, but leaned over to take a look at Pietro's arm. "Your radius and ulna are both broken, and your arm is dislocated," he said, as if he had X-ray vision. For all Pietro knew, he probably did. The man's face looked grim, making Pietro suspect that something was wrong.

"So how bad is it?" he asked, not even sure what a radius or ulna was. The old man rubbed the back of his neck.

"I can put your arm back in the socket, but I doubt if I can fix the break." For some reason he looked sad as he said it.

Pietro furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why not?" He wasn't being pushy, but he knew that there was something that the man wasn't telling him.

Suddenly a woman appeared in the doorway. She was in a T-shirt and gym shorts, looking about twenty. Pietro had the urge to whistle at her, but resisted: It wouldn't leave a good impression if that was the man's daughter. "Is everything alright, honey?" she asked.

Pietro's jaw dropped. _Honey_? That was his wife?! Slowly and hesitantly, he gave the man a sideways glance, knowing that the guy had to be perverted—even more perverted than Pietro himself—if he was married to someone that young.

"Everything's fine," he replied with a slight smile, but it wasn't hard to tell that he didn't mean it, and she knew.

Her face fell. "You can't heal much more, can you?" She picked up Iris off the floor and held her in the crook of her arm, the baby smiling widely. The man shook his head. Without another word, the woman sadly walked off. Pietro looked at him with an urging expression.

"Uh…what's going on?" he asked simply.

The man looked up at him. "That's my wife."

Pietro rolled his eyes. "I know that! Why is she about a fifth your age?! And what is she talking about how you can't heal anymore?"

With a sigh, the man explained, "She's my age. I'm only twenty-five." Pietro raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying the story. "Whenever I heal someone, I give them part of my life. Over the years it's built up, and now…" He stopped, looking down at his hand, as if he could change its appearance by staring at it long enough. "We met in highschool. When we got married, she found out that she had lung cancer. There was nothing we could do—so I healed her. I live with everyone's pain that I've taken away, and eventually I'll die because of it, probably in a few years." Pietro looked at him, and saw that he was being sincere. "That's why I can't heal your arm."

Pietro grimaced. "I understand. I'd do anything for my girlfriend too. I know how much a few years means—I'd take that over an instant death any day."

The man smiled at him thankfully. "She's a Mutant also. She can talk to animals. It's quite a feat if you ask me."

"So…how'd I get here?"

"A giant man came and knocked on the door, and you were pretty beat up so we let him in and he put you on the bed. He didn't wear much clothes," the man added with a frown. "We put some ice on your black eye and did what we could, and that's when we noticed that he had the baby. He gave it to us, told us she was yours, and said something about a girl in Antarctica." He chuckled, thinking that the subject was a little random, then grabbed Pietro's arm and started to move it back into the socket, making him grit his teeth.

"What was her name?" he asked between deep and pained breaths. But soon the pain resided and then the man started wrapping his arm in a sling.

The man's brow was furrowed, trying to remember. "I can't remember…but it was definitely foreign. But there was another name he mentioned that the girl was going to 'seek vengeance' on." He chuckled at the thought.

"What was the name?" Pietro asked, just knowing that it was going to be Mneme going to pick a fight with his father.

He finished tying it up and chuckled. "Something ridiculous, like Magnetron or Magnetoss—"

"Magneto?" he suggested with dread.

"Yes! I do believe that's the one."

"I—I have to go. Mneme's in trouble, and I know my father has some sort of trap for her…" With a short thanks he zoomed out, grabbed Iris, and started making his way to Antarctica.

* * *

Rogue gasped; suddenly she knew what was bothering her, and she ran down the street as quickly as she could. It wasn't long before she crashed into the institute, only to find everyone sitting at the dining table, Scott pacing back and forth. "Mneme's in trouble!" she shouted out as soon as she slammed the door open.

* * *

Mneme was already running at Magneto, and she flipped over sideways to get out of his range of blocking, then jumped forward onto her hands. Spinning on her palms, her legs in a full split, she twisted around and kicked Magneto to the ground. Then bending her legs, she propelled herself up and backwards, her feet landing solidly on either side of him. He placed his hands beside his head, palms down, and hurled his knees up and over, shoving Mneme to the ground and somersaulting himself backwards in midair, outstretching his legs just in time to position himself standing in front of her. Indeed, she hadn't been expecting a move so skilled—she knew he was a good fighter, but she didn't suppose that he would be that flexible—but she recovered quickly enough to swing her feet around and knock his legs out from under him. Then she pounced, a hand clutched tightly around his throat. "Fight of my life?" She scoffed and furrowed her brow, her grin showing determination. "I'll have to show you how I've become indestructible over my last fourteen years!" Raising her fist, she got ready to punch his face in, but she was sent flying, a force pulling on her neck. Mneme could tell that it was Magneto using her collar as something to throw her off, but she was able to convert a portion of his power; if she hadn't, then she probably would have gone much farther across the barren ice. As she landed, her back hit the ice, but she was able to twist herself around and dig her fingers in the ice, flipping her feet over her head and enabling her to stand.

"Not so cocky, now, are you?" Magneto said triumphantly.

"You need to be put in your place," Mneme spat back coldly. "You haven't won yet."

Magneto chuckled. "I've done my time of suffering, girl. I think it's time you've done yours."

She snarled, "I've done more suffering than you'd ever be able to imagine!"

"As have I." Then he added under his breath, "Psycho virgin…"

"What? Do you think I can't hear you?" she asked, pointing out that it was obvious.

"Of course. Why else would I have said it?" he said to her with a smirk. "This fate that you believe in just doesn't add up; there are severe cracks in the road that you're paving for yourself."

Mneme narrowed her eyes. "I don't know what you're trying to get at, and I don't care. It doesn't matter, because soon my only problem will be eliminated."

"Of all people, I would've guessed that you'd be the one to be able to see the martyr in me," Magneto said, clearly mocking her ability of knowledge. "I'm willing to sacrifice anything to see that you're dead and that my son has no need for you."

"Well it's never going to happen!" she growled at him, her feet flying, kicking up chunks of ice, anger getting the better of her. Magneto simply lifted her off the ground using the collar, making it look as if she were being hanged. He brought her in front of him, suspending her high enough so they were eye to eye.

There was a silence between the grinning man and the glowering girl, but eventually Magneto spoke. "Who needs this mess? Just think: You could join me, and all these quarrels will be over. You'll be closer to the one thing you want, and so will I."

"The only way I'll ever get what I want," Mneme struggled to say, the collar making it hard for her to speak, "is by killing you," she hissed.

With a pompous yet satisfied huff, Magneto continued, "You've already killed seven people. What difference would it make if you erased the whole Human population?"

"Even if you did that, Humans could still be produced!" she shouted hoarsely. "If two Humans are able to have a Mutant child, it could work the other way." Magneto narrowed his eyes; he hadn't really thought about that.

But soon his triumphant look returned. "Then we'll kill those Humans. Again and again, we'll find the ones that have no powers and finish them off, just like the Humans discover us and try to kill us." Mneme didn't answer; she was disgusted by the way his mind twisted things around. "You have a darkness inside you, I can see the emptiness in your eyes. That evil figure is just waiting to burst out, to kill everything in sight. The way your mind sees things, it's just you against the world. And once that terror is unleashed…" Magneto tapped the collar, showing that it was the lid to the container that concealed such power. "…it'd be impossible to avoid annihilation."

Mneme's eyes widened. "You wouldn't risk your own life and everything you've accomplished just to have the Humans killed!" It was more of a suggestion than a statement.

"No, I wouldn't," he said simply. Magneto clenched his fist, and her collars shattered in an instant, making Mneme's eyes widen even more and her heart skip a beat—was Magneto crazy?! But the next instant, her neck was enclosed again—but the metal was cold, showing that it was a different collar. He dropped Mneme to the ground, and she immediately started shivering. Closing her fingers around it, she realized that it was the collar she had given to Rogue—the one that she couldn't find a few days back. So Magneto had stolen it! And all for his plan…. Now that Mneme's powers were completely concealed, she had no way of fighting back, no way escape—all that she thought would happen was crumbling in front of her, crumbling smaller than the eye could see. She looked up as Magneto started to speak, "But I would kill the one thing that is blocking my way." He outstretched a hand, and at first Mneme thought that he was offering her a hand up.

But she was proven wrong when every part of her body started internally searing. She screamed out in pain, tears running down her face, her hands yanking her hair as she tried to get her mind off the pain. When it stopped after the few seconds she had been writhing on the ice, Mneme was out of breath and her whole body was going through every kind of pain there was. "You're…sick…" she choked out between choppy gasps of breath.

Magneto took control of the nanobots again, sending them tearing throughout her body, piercing muscles and ripping ligaments. She convulsed, her back contorted with the pain. Her screams traveled out, music to Magneto's ears. He knew that every vein in her body was cut, and she was slowly dying. "Is this what you wanted?!" he asked with a snarl of scorn. She was now curled over her knees, scraping her fingers across the ice, her fingernails getting stuck and peeling off, blood leaking from the cuticles.

"No!" she cried out, blood surging out of her mouth and nose, even dripping from her eyes.

Magneto gave a short laugh at the ironic scene that he took part in. "Then I'm not the only one."

* * *

"What do you mean?" Jean asked, averting her eyes from Scott to look at Rogue. "She's in Antarctica; how could you possibly know if she was in trouble?"

"I…" Rogue didn't know how to explain it. "I just do. And if we don't hurry, it'll probably be too late!"

"Too late for what?" Kurt asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Too late to save her!"

"But Magneto can't beat her," Evan reminded.

"Yeah, so, like, how could she be in trouble?" Kitty asked, clearly not taking Rogue's word.

Scott slammed his fist on the table. "Even if she was in trouble, we wouldn't be able to get to her anyway!" he said angrily. "For now let's just think about what to do with Gambit and the others."

Rogue stiffened. "Gambit?" she said sheepishly.

"Yeah, he and three other of Magneto's henchmen broke in and attacked Ororo." Jean explained. "Evan found that out when he was talking to Pyro. And he told him that Mneme went after Magneto, who's in Antarctica." Suddenly she stopped, and for a few seconds stared at nothing. "It's Professor Xavier!" she announced. "They just pulled in the landing dock with the others from their survival test."

Everyone jumped up and ran out, pushing past Rogue. She looked after them in disbelief: Did they even care what she had to say?! Feeling a little rejected and unappreciated, she stomped up the steps and started walking to her room. But she stopped when she noticed an open gray door, one that had never been there before. Cautiously she walked in, noticing the limp ropes on the ground. _This must be where they were tied up…and Mneme must've made this room. But where are they now…?_ She whipped around when she heard footsteps close by, but they were fading—and they seemed to be fast paced. Rogue ran back out of the room and looked down the hall, just in time to catch a glimpse of someone running out the front doors. Hurriedly, she chased after them. "Wait!" she called out, sliding down the stair railing. The door shut just when she reached the floor, and she was at the door in no time. On the other side, four figures running down the driveway. "Hold on!" she yelled at them, but that seemed to encourage them to run faster. "Gambit!" she called, using her last option. Getting his attention, Gambit stopped, so the rest of them did too. They turned around and looked at her questioningly, getting ready to fight.

"It's alright, hold your horses," Gambit told them, indicating for them to ease up. Pyro looked at him suspiciously, but Gambit was already walking over to meet Rogue halfway. When she reached him, there was an awkward moment, and for a second Rogue forgot what she had even followed them out for.

But she soon recovered her train of thought. "Where are you guys going?"

"Probably to go highjack a car and get back to home base, then get Mastermind to Antarctica since Magneto needs him for some reason," Pyro replied with a shrug.

"What's it to you?" Sabretooth asked gruffly, hitting Pyro on the head for revealing so much information.

"You'd better watch what you're doing, or I'll barbecue your body in a second!" Pyro threatened, so small compared to Sabretooth.

"You'd better watch your mouth because your flamethrowers are out of gas." Sabretooth growled lowly, grabbing Pyro's shirt and lifting him off the ground. "Remember?" The redhead stiffened, and Sabretooth threw him onto the ground.

Rolling his eyes at their immaturity, Gambit asked Rogue to continue. She thought for a moment, trying to find a way to word things so they could easily see benefit from it. "How would you like to go straight to Antarctica?" They looked at her, waiting for elaboration. "I need to get there also, and I know how to get to the X-Jet. It's way faster than anything you guys have. I just need someone to fly it."

Pyro cackled manically. "So you _want_ us to steal the X-Jet?"

"As long as you give it back."

Gambit looked at the others, who exchanged glances.

"Agreed?" they asked each other. "Agreed," they replied. They turned to Rogue. "Agreed." Rogue beamed, unable to believe that things were actually working out for her.

"Okay, follow me, and stay low. I'll get us to the X-Jet, and you'll fly us there." She ran up to the door, the others trailing behind her. They pressed themselves up against the wall when the door opened and Jean appeared. "Oh. Uh…hey, Jean."

"We've been looking for you—Gambit, Sabretooth, Pyro, and Mastermind have escaped, and we need to find them before they go to reek more havoc somewhere…" She went to walk past Rogue, but she put her arm on the doorframe to block her way. Jean tried to go by Rogue's other side, but she put that arm up to block her way also.

"There's no need to look out here," she said nervously, trying to keep her from getting by.

"And why not? They'd try to escape through the front doors first."

"Because…I've already checked." Rogue said, putting on a toothy grin, trying to make it seem as sincere as possible, but Jean just looked at her with an odd expression. _I hope she doesn't read my mind…_

"But you didn't even know that they had gotten out."

"I think ahead. You know me; I'm never hanging around with you guys, always trying to do things solo…. In fact, if they didn't go this way, I'd say they're hiding out in the backyard, making their way around to try and get one of the cars for a quick getaway."

Jean looked at her suspiciously. "I don't think so. I saw them running down the driveway when I telepathically tried to find them."

"Jean, who do you think knows a villain mind best? Me, the bad kid who never follows rules, or you, the good girl, who's always getting A's in every subject?" Rogue raised an eyebrow challengingly. When Jean seemed to believe her, she continued, "Tell everyone to check the garage. I'll catch up with you after I get…" she tried to think of something good, "my crowbar from under my bed. Hurry!" Jean flew up the stairs, telepathically telling all the Mutants to check the garage. Rogue watched her fade out of sight, then signaled for the other four to follow her to the elevator. It was a little crammed once Sabretooth entered, but they eventually got down to the landing dock. No one was there, so they were able to freely get into the X-Jet. Pyro sat in the pilot's seat, but Sabretooth kicked him (literally) out, took the wheel, and starting up the jet, Mastermind taking the seat next to him, Gambit and Rogue the two behind them. Pyro stood up and, after giving Sabretooth a hateful glare, strolled around.

Gambit's eyes followed him, but Pyro didn't take a seat. "I suggest you sit down," he told him, but the upset redhead paid no heed to his warning.

"I'm fine. What's the worst that could happen?"

After checking the navigation systems and such, Sabretooth opened the landing dock door and drove the jet out, pulling up as soon as they had cleared the cave. Water from the waterfall bombarded the jet, but they were soon going fast enough to where the drops simply flew off. Rogue was pressed against her seat from the speed, and Pyro was sent flying backwards, hitting many objects before slamming into the back of the jet. Gambit chuckled, turned around in his seat to get a good look at the poor fellow. "That wasn't the worst that could've happened, but it was pretty bad," he said to him. Rogue smiled, falling in love with his sense of humor all over again.

Once the aircraft leveled out, Pyro stood up and made his way to the seat behind Gambit, giving him an unhappy stare before buckling himself in. Rogue laughed at him, noticing that she hadn't felt that wonderful since the last time she and Gambit went on a date. The thought made her stop abruptly, and she cast a sideways glance over to Remy. He didn't notice, so she used this time to stare at him, trying to embed the image in her mind and save it as one of the last times she'd be able to look at him without actually being in battle. "How long do you expect it'll take us to get there?" he asked Sabretooth, and the mere sound of his voice was like liquid gold: so valuable and fluid, treasured in Rogue's mind forever.

* * *

Pietro looked at his breath that floated up in the cold air. He was shivering, but Iris was fine. She seemed to be immune to the elements because of her powers. She looked up at him with her big black eyes, glistening in the gray light. Suddenly snow started falling gently onto them and the ground, and Pietro started shivering even more. Even so, he smiled down at Iris, but there was so much sadness that was gathered in his eyes. Somehow Iris could tell that something was wrong, and tears starting dripping and freezing to her face. "Don't cry," he said quietly, a lump growing in his throat. "Come on. Stiffen up and get rid of those tears." The little girl's lip started trembling. "I promise you that your mama is going to be alright." He held her closer with his only good arm, and started slowly moving through the snow, his muscles cold and stiff, unwilling to move and preventing him from using his powers. His teeth chattered, but there was a small bit of warmth at his chest. When he looked down, Iris was holding a large ball of fire. He smiled down at her thankfully, and continued walking. But it was too cold for him to stay conscious. His eyes drooped and he collapsed to the ground, falling asleep against his will…

* * *

"Rogue…Rogue…? Rogue! Wake up!"

"AAAAAAA! What's going on?!" She took in deep breaths, looking around and trying to figure out what was going on. "Oh," she breathed a sigh of relief. "It's just you guys." She was tossed a heavy jacket, jackets that were always kept on the X-Jet. Once she zipped it up, Rogue followed the others down the ramp and looked at the plain, flat, white land. "Where's Magneto?"

Sabretooth, who refused to wear a jacket, lifted his nose to the wind. "He's coming from there," he replied, indicating to the direction the wind was blowing at them. "It'll be easier just to reach him on foot." And so they started trekking out to find Magneto, followed by Rogue. "What are you coming for?"

"I'm going to help Mneme, because I know she's in trouble." Rogue said stiffly, clearly stating that she didn't give a damn what they thought.

"I don't think so!" Pyro huffed. "You'd better walk yourself back onto that jet and—"

Gambit glared at him, his red eyes boring into him. "I suggest you shut your mouth. This little lady can go where she pleases."

Pyro narrowed his eyes. "And why is that?"

"Because she's with me." he replied simply, taking Rogue's hand and walking ahead of the others.

* * *

Pietro's eyes opened up to a grassy landscape full of flowers. He grinned, feeling the warm sunlight wash over him and his favorite place in the whole world. Each flower was bright with Spring colors and sweet scents, and when he sat up, there was a willow tree. It had never been there before, so he stood and walked over to it, and then he stopped, because sitting in front of him the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Her turquoise hair and stormy gray eyes shone in the sunlight, speckled by the leaves of the willow. She was so still, her smile so perfect, her skin so fair—she had to be a statue. But as Pietro hesitantly stepped towards the girl and under the dappled shade, he recognized her. "Mneme…I'm dreaming, aren't I?"

Her smile contained some sadness. "Yes," she replied. "And you must wake."

He glanced around discretely. "But what if I don't want to wake up?" he asked, looking into her eyes.

"Then you'll freeze to death." Her voice was sounded truthful.

Pietro looked down. "That's where you are, isn't it?" he asked gravely. A look of surprise could be seen on Mneme's face, but she didn't answer. "Then that's where I want to be!" he told her, his voice sincere, but desperate. He took her hands in his. "I don't want to leave you," he said to her, tears in his eyes.

"If I am dead, then Iris still needs you," she reminded. "And if I'm not dead, then you'll be waiting for me." Pietro was confused: Was she dead, or wasn't she? A feeling of dread was consuming him, and he knew that his father had done something…. He looked away from her, trying to make up his mind, but when he looked back at her, there was just gray sky and snow falling towards him. Pietro was looking up at the Antarctic sky, and a tear dropped out of the corner of his eye. He wiped it away before it could freeze. When he turned his head, he saw that Iris had a small fire next to him, trying to keep him warm. It was odd that someone so young could have so much understanding…

"I guess you like me after all," he said to her, a slight smile on his face. Sitting up, he took her in his arm and stood. "Let's go find Mneme."

* * *

Rogue looked around. There didn't seem to be anything but ice, and it had started snowing. Her already pale skin was lightened even more with the wind whipping at her cheeks, but she continued to move on. "Where is Magneto, anyway?" she asked Sabretooth.

"He's close." was his only reply. Rogue was concerned with whether "close" meant a couple hundred yards or miles away from them. It was impossible to see farther than twenty feet with the heavy snowfall, but Sabretooth seemed to know where he was going.

* * *

Xavier rubbed his temples; all the ruckus was giving him a horrible headache. Ororo had woken up by know, and everyone was arguing about where Mneme was, where Rogue was, where Magneto's henchmen were, and what to do about all of it.

Jean, angry about being tricked by Rogue, had gone completely against her, along with Scott, so they didn't believe a word about what Rogue had said about Mneme. Evan, Kurt, and Beast decided that Mneme was fine and she could handle herself, so they just wanted to forget about the whole thing and get on with their lives. Wolverine and Kitty, on the other hand, wanted to do something right away for both Mneme and Rogue. Of course, everyone was yelling and screaming and threatening each other, not accomplishing anything.

Eventually Xavier left the room unnoticed, and he went to his office to think to himself. According the others, Rogue had said something was wrong with Mneme, and he guessed that was why she took Sabretooth and the others to the X-Jet and left. Jean, against the girl, said that she was just trying to make a quick escape with Gambit. And for some reason Evan had said that Mneme was in Antarctica. He couldn't find Mneme or Magneto using his powers, so he looked for Rogue. Indeed, she was in a very snowy area with Gambit, Sabretooth, Pyro, and Mastermind. But there were definitely three people who were missing from this mystery: Where was Colossus if all of Magneto's other acolytes were there? No one seemed to have mentioned him. And Pietro was gone, along with Iris, so there had to be a correlation between the three…

* * *

Mneme had lost track of the time, but by now she knew that Magneto was into torture. Every time she was on the brink of death, he would release the nanobots to heal her body back to perfection again, then destroy her insides. Over and over he did this, a new pain searing throughout her each time. But suddenly he stopped, then grinned off into the distance. Mneme took this time to gasp for air, but her esophagus was torn; even if it wasn't, blood would be blocking her from breathing anyway. When Magneto looked back down at her, and she could feel the nanobots tearing through her body, but they seemed to be gathering around her solarplex…

* * *

Pietro saw a tall figure in the distance—Magneto! No one seemed to be standing around him, so joy washed over him. _Mneme's alright!_ he screamed inside his head. A new burst of energy coursed through him, and he zoomed over to his father. But he was going away, using his powers to lift himself off the ground and float across the ice. Pietro tried to keep up with him, confused. Surely he had seen him! Perhaps…he didn't want anything to do with Pietro anymore? Maybe he was so ashamed of him that he was disgusted at the mere thought of him, the mere sight of him. He stopped, grimacing, watching him disappear in the snow. He looked down, feeling ashamed of himself because of what he'd done. Pietro hadn't realized how much pain he'd caused Magneto. But suddenly his eyes widened when he saw drops of blood where his father had been standing. His eyes followed the trail, and to his worst horror, he saw Mneme laying there, a huge hole ripped through her shirt and solarplex. Pietro looked at her in disbelief, and fell to his knees. His worst nightmare had come true. He put Iris down, and crawled over to Mneme, her porcelain face preserved in a look of emptiness and eternal sleep. Her eyes were closed, but she wasn't breathing. Pietro reached a hand out to her face, but stopped halfway, his chest tightening, a lump in his throat growing. He clenched his fist on the ground as tears started forming in his eyes, and he bit his lip, not able to look at her. Magneto, his own father, had killed the only girl he had truly loved. Iris crawled up clumsily next to him, hugging Mneme's cold arm. When there was no reaction, Iris looked at her face, confused. When she looked up at Pietro for help to wake her up, he didn't know what to do. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat, but it wouldn't go down. He dared to look at Mneme's face again. Blood trickled out of the corners of her mouth, and her nose oozed two rivers of crimson. The hole in her torso was about six inches across, a perfect circle, and he could see her heart that wasn't beating, her lungs that weren't breathing. On her face was a single tear that traveled down, escaping the corner of her closed eye. "Iris…" he choked out. "I lied to you. I told you she'd be alright. And she's not."

* * *

Rogue kept walking on, her mind elsewhere. For some reason, the odd gut feeling that she had went away, making her wonder. Perhaps Mneme had made it back to the institute? Or maybe she defeated Magneto? Looking behind her to check on Gambit, she saw that there was a figure missing. "Where's Mastermind?" she asked.

The others looked behind them, then took a look around. "I dunno." Pyro answered simply, then walked past her.

"C'mon, he'll be fine." Remy assured, taking her hand and pulling her along, helping her against the wind. The warmth of his hand warmed her whole body, and she smiled happily.

* * *

Magneto looked at the pathetic sight of his own son weeping, curled over that disgrace of a girl. He looked at the solidified ball of broken nanobots that he had smashed together and ripped out of her. It was bloody, and he recalled the drips of blood that fell off it as he brought it closer when he had ripped it out of her body. He looked at the baby. Such a stupid being. Couldn't it see that the girl was dead? He scoffed to himself, then looked at Mastermind, who had come just in time to carry out the rest of the plan, the plan that would make everything back to the way it was before that girl arrived. "Are you ready?" he asked him.

For some reason, he had a look of sympathy for Pietro. "Perhaps you've taken things too far," he suggested weakly.

Magneto looked at him with an intimidating expression. "Are you questioning _me_?" he asked with authority.

"No, I just—"

"Good." Magneto walked forward, the snow now had thinned. When he stepped beside Pietro, the boy looked up at the sound of his footsteps. Frozen tears streaked his face, his questioning expression almost painful to look at. But Magneto just snorted. "She was a waste of time."

Pietro breathed in shaky, angry breaths. "You bastard!" he shouted at his father, standing up in less than an instant and aiming an uppercut to the jaw. Magneto grabbed his broken arm and twisted it around and behind him, applying pressure where he could feel the fractures. Knowing that he was no match to his father, Pietro didn't even bother to fight back. "Why'd you do it?" he asked lowly, his voice unsteady with sorrow.

"Trust me, Pietro, you'd rather live the life that I have planned out for you than to live with that girl and a crying brat the rest of your life." Magneto replied with a slight laugh.

"You're wrong!" Pietro shouted back at him, glaring over his shoulder. Magneto tightened his grip, making him wince in pain as her turned back around.

"Consider what I've done for you a…blessing in disguise." Magneto said. "Besides, when you wake up, you won't remember a thing." He saw Mastermind standing in front of him, casting a questioning glance at Magneto, who glared impatiently in response.

Pietro eyed Mastermind, who was stepping closer, his hand reaching for his head. Then he remembered what had happened to Wanda. "No!" he yelled out, trying to break free of his father's grip. "I don't want to forget Mneme!"

* * *

Rogue had fallen behind to walk with Remy at this point, and the snow had let up thankfully. Then she saw a three people standing in the remoteness of the land. Once they got closer, she could see that it was Magneto, Mastermind, and Pietro, and there was something on the ground… "Stay here," Gambit told her, gently pushing her behind a heap of snow. He knew better about Magneto than she, so she stayed curled up, but listened intently.

"I wasn't expecting you," Magneto said. Rogue could hear in his voice that he sounded accomplished.

There was a pause before Gambit spoke, "So you killed her?" he asked, his voice showing resentment.

"I thought I smelled blood," Sabretooth added. Rogue took in a sharp breath. So that thing on the ground was…a dead girl? She hoped so hard that it wasn't Mneme…

"Good riddance." Pietro said smugly. Rogue was surprised that he would say such a thing like that, but at least that cleared up the thought that it was Mneme—he would never say that about her.

"Yeah, that girl was a real pain," Pyro interjected. "Thought she knew everything. She even drained my flamethrowers!" he added with disbelief. She listened more intently; she remembered that Mneme had done that before in a simulation.

"Wait," Gambit said. "I thought she was your girlfriend?" he asked Pietro.

"What?!" Pietro said with disbelief. "We've been enemies since day one!" he said pompously. "Are you stupid? Why would I go out with that rat when I can have any girl I want?" Rogue's eyes widened; Pietro had been in on it all along? And now Mneme was dead? She looked around disjointedly, trying to make sense of the whole thing. Why hadn't Mneme seen that he was lying to her?

"Okay, take it easy," Gambit said to him, not taking kindly to being called stupid. "What do we do about the baby?"

"Leave it. The frost will kill it soon enough." Magneto told them. "Let's go. I have a jet waiting for us at the base." Rogue heard their footsteps crunching through the snow, so she peeked over the top of the mound. Remy was looking back at her, but signaled for her to stay down. Rogue ducked back down, but still watched for them to get out of sight.

When their figures faded, she ran out and looked at the body, and it was Mneme. Rogue was speechless. How could she have been defeated? It just didn't make any sense…. Perhaps Pietro was going to fight her, and she just couldn't stand up to it? Rogue looked around, but there was no baby in sight. She was going to have to go back without Iris.

* * *

Mneme's funeral was held the next day, after Rogue had somehow brought Mneme to he plane and even more amazingly was able to figure out how to fly the X-Jet back—even though she ended up landing it in the backyard.

Jean, Kitty, Rogue, and Ororo were the ones who cleaned her up and put her in her X-Men uniform. Usually someone comes to put makeup on the dead before they get buried, but they decided that she was already beautiful, even in death.

The younger Mutants weren't allowed to be at the funeral. Kurt had brought a Catholic priest to say a prayer, but the prayer was in Latin, so no one could understand it but Xavier and Beast. As everyone looked down at Mneme, the rain dripping on her, they could see that she had no look of peace Rogue watched from her balcony, feeling that she shared in the fault of Mneme's death.

Ororo looked at the ground, her tears hidden in the rain. Jean had her head rested on Scott's shoulder, tears dripping down her cheeks, his arm around her. Kitty couldn't stop sniffling, and Rogue could see Kurt look at her with surprise when she took his hand, but he clasped it firmly back. Even though none of the guys were crying, it was clear that they were sad. Wolverine was out looking for anyone that was associated with Magneto so he could kill something, and Rogue rested her head on the balcony, remembering how she was in the exact position when Mneme was talking to her. She had been a really good friend, to all of them. She helped them with a lot, and in turn, she'd hang out with everyone. Rogue knew she was never going to forget the time Mneme and Evan had a skateboarding contest. Mneme had drained the pool so they could do tricks in it. Of course she had won. And the time she beat Wolverine in an arm wrestle. And then there was the time she won in an eating contest with Kurt—of course, everyone but him had known that Kitty had cooked the food, so he could hardly eat any before throwing up. That had all been before they knew her very well, and everything had all been in fun. It was certain that everyone was going to miss her…

_In the calmness, only one drip has fallen  
__It surges in the spreading ripples, the bottom of the well  
__Cold blasting wind that rocks the whooshing of my heart_

_If we could have co-existed like that  
__Everybody would listen to the quiet in this forest  
__And shed tears over the noise_

_In this forest the clamor never ends, and with this silence  
__Please bring back the peaceful time  
__To the whooshing of my heart_

_Noise is born, sinking…sinking…  
__In the sea of silence._


	24. Chapter TwentyFour

_Hey, everybody!_

_Chapter twenty-four! Woo!_

_Well, as you can tell from this chapter, my new main character will be Iris._

_But don't lose hope on Mneme! She's still a main base for the whole thing._

_Okay, here's the deal on Death Adder: I know he's not a Mutant, but I thought it would be alright if I used him as one._

_The link to my fanfiction gallery is on my profile, so feel free to look at them. They're on DeviantArt, my favorite art site. ^^_

_Sorry for you guys who don't agree, but I think he makes a great Mutant. Oh, and he's fourteen in this._

_Okay, enjoy this short chapter! XD I hope you like it! Feel free to leave a review. ^^_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution, _any of its characters, or _Death Adder_._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris because I made them up._**

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

The next morning was very glum. Everyone was in a state of depression, besides the new Mutants. They hadn't known Mneme, but from what they heard, she sounded alright. At the breakfast table no one was his or her usual self. Kurt wasn't even cracking any jokes. It seemed that Mneme's death had actually drawn he and Kitty to a truce, realizing that the quarrel between them was in fact very foolish, so they were sitting next to each other in silence.

Now that Xavier had heard what Rogue knew, it was time for him to find out what Iris, Pietro, and Piotr had to do with everything. At the front door, he asked Jean, "Would you mind making some observations of Pietro for me? I need every piece of information you can get—what he's thinking, any injuries—you can even find out where he got them. Anything would be helpful." Jean nodding in understanding, then made her way out the door and into Scott's car.

Ororo walked up behind him. "The X-Jet is ready in the hangar. Are we making departure now?" she asked, departure meaning going to Papua New Guinea to drop off the New Mutants for more training and then heading to Antarctica to look for Iris. Her face was stricken with grief from Mneme's death, she being one of the most shaken by it. Xavier looked at her sorrowfully.

"Beast and I will go. You will stay with Wolverine and watch the institute," he explained to her, taking into consideration what happened last time she was left alone to watch the mansion.

"But I want to go!" Storm argued. "Losing Iris was mostly my fault, and I'd do anything to get her back…for Mneme."

Xavier sighed, looking up at her with sympathy. "I understand, but you credit yourself far too much for the loss of Iris." Ororo looked down in shame, feeling the weight of the little girl's life upon her shoulders. "Besides, we're lucky that Magneto didn't realize that she was a Mutant—if he had, I'm certain he'd use her powers for evil, and her fate would be far worse than it is now." He patted her arm and wheeled away, leaving Storm to her lonesome. She clutched her elbow; for some reason, everything just seemed to be pushing against her.

* * *

Pietro blinked his eyes open sleepily. He had been so excited about Mneme's death that he hardly slept that whole night. His Brotherhood companions were so confused by how jubilant he was, but they didn't feel like questioning him: It was Pietro they were dealing with, the unpredictable, ignorant, pompous, self-centered jerk they hadn't had to deal with for a whole week because he met Mneme. But supposedly it had all been an act…

He stood up and walked into the bathroom examining his face with much interest as he slicked back his silver hair. Picking up his handheld mirror, he decided he'd go downstairs for some breakfast. He walked past Blob-, who gave him a questioning look as he went by, and into the kitchen. Inside the pantry, there wasn't much. Maybe some cereal crumbs still in the box, but nothing much besides that. With a depressed sigh, he closed the pantry door, but his mood heightened when he looked at himself in the mirror. Pietro walked into the living room, where Toad and Lance were watching static on the television.

"Hey—" Todd started rather glumly, but his voice broke off in a disturbed yell, and he fell backwards along with his chair, tumbling across the floor.

Lance raised an eyebrow rather inquiringly as he looked at Pietro with his face slightly contorted. "Would you mind putting some clothes on?" he said, more of a demand than a question.

Pietro scoffed at them and resumed looking at his face in the mirror. "I like myself like this—why would I put any clothes on?"

Lance looked at him as if it were obvious, but simply walked past him. "If any of you are going to school, I suggest you get in the jeep." And with that he walked outside.

* * *

It was cold in Antarctica. "I know there was some sort of signal of a Mutant here…" The person walked on, a group of green-clad workers behind following.

"M-M-M-Miss Neeka…" one of them chattered, shivering severely from the cold. "W-w-w-we should head b-b-back bef-f-f-fore—"

"I'm in charge, I'll say when we return!" she shouted back at him. Being one of the few women in HYDRA, she was lucky to have obtained such a high spot on the authority scale, but she had earned it. It was her job to direct the Mutant experiments and studies, and she had seen a very high discharge of energy on the radar, which led them to Antarctica. If she didn't find whatever Mutant had caused such a force, she was going to be in big trouble… "Here!" she shouted, stopping where her handheld radar detected it. "Search all around for whatever Mutant made—what the—?" Neeka looked down, her foot sunken into slushy ice, next to it a fire burning without any wood. The men had gone to search, but something wasn't quite right. She lifted her foot out of the slush and followed a pair of dragging lines—tracks. They led her to a giant mound of ice—and the tracks stopped right at the very edge. Neeka put her hands on her hips and squinted, trying to make sense out of it. Her eyes traveled up the smooth dome-like hill of ice, and she noticed that it was quite different than the ice around them. The ice she walked on was crystalline and jagged, while the dome was smooth, yet compacted enough to be white. The only explanation would be if it were manmade or constructed by another source. "You there!" she shouted out, pointing to one of the HYDRA squad members. "Bust through this ice," she commanded. The man walked up, and, pulling his arm across his chest, used his elbow to burst through the ice—and Neeka felt a feeling of satisfaction wash over her as she heard the cracking. But her face soon fell when the man yelled out, clutching his elbow in pain; it hadn't been the ice that cracked; it was his elbow. That made it certain—it was definitely a Mutant who made it. She smiled up at the structure. "Well what have we here?"

* * *

Everyone was tired from misery when they shuffled their feet towards the school building, their sorrow weighing in their chests, building like a heavy lead ball. Jean was tired, her eyes dry from sleep deprivation and her face clouded. Her friends all asked what was wrong, but she didn't have the heart to tell them the truth—it was too painful. Things were such a bore as the teachers' words were blurred into drones of meaninglessness, her notes just jumbles of random things on a page. When lunch finally rolled around, no one really had an appetite to eat, so they all just sat in silence. Jean looked over at the Brotherhood's table to get an observation of Pietro. His arm was in a sling, and he had bruises all over his arms and face. Yet he was laughing—and when he turned to look at her, his expression was so triumphant, so satisfied, so culpable of betrayal that it made Jean sick inside. She turned her head away and looked down at the table. "How could we not see that he was conniving us the whole time?"

Scott looked at her sympathetically. "If Mneme didn't know, how would any of us be able to realize that it was a scheme all along?"

"I _tried_ to tell you!" Evan said angrily, "but you had to ignore me and Pietro's past! Don't you know lying to people is the only thing he knows? He lives off of people's pain that he's caused! Why do you think we're arch enemies?!" The rest couldn't bear to meet his eyes; they knew he was right.

"Well, crying about all this ain't gonna help us avenge her death." Rogue stated.

Kitty raised an eyebrow, but her mouth was still turned down in a despondent frown. "Avenge her death?" Her voice was dull, almost monotone.

"Yeah. What else are we supposed to do?"

Jean sighed. "The Professor doesn't want us to think like that—he's going to figure something out that will stop Magneto and his followers for good. Isn't that enough to call it payback for Mneme?"

Rogue furrowed her brow and slammed her fist on the table. "No! The day we stop him is the day we get revenge for all the times he's injured us, tried to kill us, tried to enslave Humans, and giving us Mutants a bad reputation! Mneme deserves more than to just be forgotten about. We've got to do something about it—"

"Like vhat, Rogue?" Kurt demanded, finally speaking up angrily once he'd had enough. "It's not like ve stand a chance against Magneto and his henchmen vithout the Professor, and you know that he von't approve of that plan!" Rogue looked at him with a look of utter repugnance, disgusted that they refused to do anything about Mneme's death, and she stiffly pushed back her chair and left the table. Rogue knew that Kurt was just depressed and didn't really mean to act so angry, but that was no excuse. Who cared if the Professor didn't agree? They had all done plenty of things against his will! What made this so much different? As she walked down the hall and out the front of the school, she was completely oblivious to her surroundings. But she planned to skip the rest of the day, find some secluded area and think about how to do things on her own. And something caught her eye…

"Remy?" she asked, looking up suddenly. "What are you doing here?" she asked, looking around to make sure no one was in sight. They started walking down the street, quickly off school property.

"Thought I'd drop by to see how you were doing," he said, his hands in his pockets and a look of shame on his face as he focused on the ground. "And to tell you that I'm sorry."

Rogue raised an eyebrow. "You're sorry? For what?"

"For leaving you back up there in Antarctica. I didn't want Magneto to know you were there—who knows what he would've done to you?—so I just went along with everything…. I was worried that you wouldn't be able to fly yourself home, but I guess you did…. How'd you do it?" he asked with bewilderment.

Rogue shrugged. "I read the first few pages of the manual to see what all those buttons were and how to work the navigation, then I took off and landed in the back yard." It was silent for a few moments before anyone said anything.

"I'm sorry about your friend, too," Remy told her. "If I had known that boy was lying, I would've told you, but I honestly thought he really loved her…. I mean, Magneto put him solitary confinement and beat him pretty bad for hanging out with her—and even when Pietro said he was trying to convince her to join them, Magneto didn't believe him."

"And it had all been an act?" Rogue asked, shocked that Pietro had gone through pain just to cause the X-Men misery.

"I guess so. Well, at least you still have that little girl—good thing Magneto left her there. If he didn't, you—"

"You mean Iris? Oh…well…you see…I didn't get her. I couldn't find her, so I got Mneme and went on the jet…" Rogue said, blowing away the one chance of an optimistic look for the situation.

Remy grimaced. "Oh. So that's two people you've lost…"

Rogue shook her head. "The Professor is going to Antarctica to find her right now. He thinks that since Iris can control the elements she won't be affected by the cold. I just hope he's right…"

* * *

When school was over, Pietro and the gang sat around the house, basically doing nothing. Of course, Pietro had eventually out some clothes on before going to school—you can't skip classes naked!—and even the rest of the Brotherhood was a little depressed about Mneme's departure; apart from her not being all that bad, now Pietro wasn't gone all the time, and he was no picnic to deal with. "So…how'd you do it?" Lance asked him, standing in his bedroom doorway as he slicked back his hair some more.

"Do what?"

"Act like you really cared for her, change your whole personality, and then laugh when she's gone. Don't you even have a little bit of a heart?"

Pietro scoffed. "It's not like any of the stuff that I said was true. It was all just…an act. Even leaving you guys. It might as well have been scripted."

Lance looked at him skeptically. "That not you said when you were with her."

Pietro gave him a sideways glare. "Yeah? So what?"

"She was the only thing you ever talked about. You tricked everyone—including Magneto—and even Mneme believed that you really loved her." Lance paused, but Pietro didn't have anything to say, so he continued, "So how can you know that you deceived someone who you loved—and who loved you—and not even feel bad?"

At first Pietro didn't know what to say to that, but he soon grinned at him. "I didn't love her, the person I was portraying loved her."

Lance furrowed his brow. "And who was that?"

Pietro laughed. "A poor desperate fool who was willing to do anything for his father, and his father's command was to get her to join. I didn't want her to join, so I had to act like I did, but I knew she wasn't ever going to give in, so I decided to cause a whole lot of misery for the X-Men."

The other boy looked taken aback. So Pietro had been acting as a guy who was under his father's command, and the guy he was acting as was acting as another guy who loved Mneme? Lance shook his head, getting slightly confused.

Pietro walked past him, clapping his shoulder as he went by. "Remember, keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."

* * *

Neeka was getting very agitated—not even a chainsaw was able to get through the ice. Finally, two men with flamethrowers appeared. "Fire!" she shouted, and two jets of flame bombarded the dome. After a few minutes of constant fire, the ice started melting, the water dripping down and the ice becoming thinner by the second. When a hold about three feet in diameter was made, Neeka ceased fire and walked up to it, fanning steam out of her face. When she looked through, to her amazement, a little baby was sound asleep on the ice. An evil grin played across her face. "Men, take this child back the HYDRA headquarters!" she commanded when she turned around. "I think this is the one we've been looking for."

* * *

It was late by the time Xavier and Beast returned. They had searched all around for miles of where Iris might be, but they found nothing except an empty dome with lots of tracks. It was clear that Iris was taken by a group of people. Xavier explained this to everyone, and Mneme sat up in the corner of the ceiling, making herself invisible to all of them, listening intently.

"There aren't any residents or natives, so we know that it wasn't Magneto or a group of citizens." Xavier stated, "And the only reason why someone would be desperate enough to get through that dome is if they knew a Mutant was around. Beast wasn't even able to break through the ice."

"HYDRA." Wolverine said with disgust. "They're the only group of people that would do something like that."

* * *

Neeka immediately had the baby tested once they reached the headquarters. She pulled out the files they had collected on amplifying powers, found in the underground laboratory of a dead couple. Their bodies had each been uniquely mutilated, but that didn't matter. What mattered was their research, and it was all within their files and a large leather-bound book that had descriptions of everything they did. Her eyes strained to read the print after hours of reading, but she still scanned page after page, trying to figure out what to do with the child. She obviously had a high potential, and a high rate of power. According to the couple's notes, Mutants lose their powers as they get older, so that was going to be a problem, unless the girl had already lost those extra powers and was stuck with her elemental powers…

Her boots clacked and echoed as she strode down the hallway, but soon she got to one of the many labs. The little girl was there, awake and dazed. Neeka slammed the book down in front of one of the scientists. "This is what you're going to do, only inject the matter into her bloodstream and keep her in unconscious confinement…" She explained a list of steps that the group of scientists was to go through, each of them considering any backfires. After a few concerns got taken care of, they started on the project, hoping that all would go well.

"But Miss Neeka," one of them spoke up as she was about to walk out. "She's too young to take any of this. It's too risky to put her through it all at once at this age."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Then speed up her aging process tenfold so she will be old enough!" she demanded, then turned on her heel and walked out.

It took a while, but the scientists soon had everything ready for Iris to be put through a transformation. They injected her with the amplifier, had her contained in the green substance that kept her unconscious, and put some sort of machine at the bottom of the column she was in. That machine was going to send multiple beams at certain rates to speed up her growth, changing both her mind and body. It was an old machine, and not all the bugs had been worked out, so some side affects were likely to occur, but Neeka wasn't going to allow them enough time to get things worked out to perfection…

"Start it up." The scientist smashed the button for the machine to work, and the transformation started.

* * *

Iris opened her eyes and looked around. She was in some sort of cylinder…. When she looked down, she was quite different than what she remembered she looked like. Her legs were longer, her hair longer, her body dissimilar from the one she knew she had. A sleek black suit covered her whole body up to her chin, and straps held her down to the table.

"Stay calm, you're getting a CAT scan done. Wait a few more minutes and it'll be finished." a voice said. Somehow Iris knew what he was saying…but how? She had never understood anything but baby language, and here she knew perfect English. When the CAT scan was done, the table that she was strapped to moved out of the cylinder and two men came out to undo the straps. When she sat up they both backed away, as if afraid of her. "Do you feel alright?" one of them asked, and she recognized the voice from when she was getting a CAT scan. For some reason, she couldn't speak, even though she knew what he was saying. "Do you understand me?" She nodded. The man in the green uniform narrowed his eyes, trying to make sense of it. "It seems that the X-rays were right—she has underdeveloped vocal cords, far too small and damaged to be used. But other than that, she's perfectly fine." A woman walked in, wearing an outfit similar to the men's.

"She can't speak?"

"No. It must've had something to do with—"

"All for the better. She doesn't need to know how to talk," the woman said simply. "Put her in cell forty-seven. We start training tomorrow."

The two men each took one of her arms and helped her off the table, then led her down multiple hallways. "Her muscles are well developed. I wasn't expecting the aging machine to work that well," one man commented to the other.

"Yeah, me neither. That thing was so old, I'm surprised it was still around. Wasn't it built some time when Strucker was born?" The two laughed at the comment, stopping in front of a thick metal door. One of them pushed in a keycard and the door opened with a whoosh of pressure being released. Screams and groans could be heard, echoing down the white hallway. Iris didn't want to go in, but they pulled her down the hall. Metal doors with square foot barred diamond windows were on either side of them, each door about three feet apart. They each had a number, starting 1 and continuing down one side and coming back the other. Something jumped at them, trying to force its way through the window, scaring Iris out of her wits and making her legs collapse under her. One of the men helped straighten her back up while the other pressed a button beside the keycard slot, and the thing immediately fell to the ground, a buzzing sound coming from the room—along with yelps and screams. "I told Neeka we should've gotten rid of that one…" He returned to Iris and grabbed her arm, the men leading her down the hall even further. Her heart pounded with fear; none of the beings in the white rooms sounded happy, only angry or in pain. Iris raised her eyebrows when she saw a reptilian man leaning on the back wall.

"This is cell forty-seven…. Did Neeka know that it was already occupied?"

"All the cells are occupied, down to the hundredth one. Besides, Death Adder here is the only sane one in this joint." He pushed his keycard in and the door opened, then, after throwing Iris in, the door closed and they walked away. Iris was thrown in such a way that she landed sitting with her back to the so-called Death Adder. She twisted around, scooting backwards to the door, trying to push through it. His piercing yellow eyes were eerie, and his green skin didn't help for a welcoming appearance. His red and blue suit showed claws coming from his crossed arms. He had a tall fishlike frill coming off his head and running down his back, and his reptilian tail had spikes running down it. Death Adder narrowed his eyes, making Iris cover her face in fear.

He took a dry-erase board off the wall and wrote something on it. He came over to her and tapped her shoulder to get her attention, but she uncovered her face and immediately crawled to the other side of the room, her chest heaving and eyes wide. Death Adder gave a silent sigh and sank down to the ground, sliding the board across the tiled floor for her to see. "_You don't have to be scared_," it read. She tilted her head to the side and picked it up, using the clip-on eraser to erase what it said.

Picking up the pen, she wrote, "_Are you a mute?_" and slid it across the floor. When he picked it up and wrote back, he slid it across the floor.

"_Yes_," it said in his scratchy handwriting, "_But you don't have to use this to talk to me. I'm not deaf_."

After writing Iris passed it across the floor again. Death Adder picked it up and read, "_I am a mute also. Why are you here?_"

"_I was one of the HYDRA member's sons, and they were doing an experiment to see if they could make animals become Mutants. When their test succeeded, they wanted to see if they could combine the DNA of a Mutant animal and the DNA of a Human to make a humanoid Mutant._"

"_So technically you're a Mutant. What are your powers? Any reptilian attributes?_"

"_I suppose you could classify me as a Mutant. And if I were to call them powers, then they'd come from my amphibian/aquatic attributes, which are super strength, speed, and poison tipped claws. What are your powers?_"

"_Oh. Sorry I called you reptilian. You just look like a lizard._" Iris erased the last part since it sounded a little insulting, but his green skin did kind of make him look a little like a lizard. "_My powers are to control and covert the elements, but that was before I went through some changes._"

"_What changes?_"

"_I was crawling as a baby when I went to sleep, and I woke up and now I'm at this place and standing…but I have no idea how old my body is suppose to be._"

"_The age amplifier is probably what they used, and that's probably what turned you into a mute. The thing is so old, none of the bugs have ever been worked out. There's always some kind of defect. Consider yourself lucky; most of the other cases were far worse. It's also likely that they amplified your powers with some new technology that they just discovered._"

"_Wow, you certainly know a lot._" Iris's face looked a little skeptical, wondering how he could find out such information while being in a white cell.

"_I go out for training every other day, and that Neeka doesn't keep her mouth shut. I hear what she plans to do next all the time. In fact, I heard that they had a signal from Antarctica, and she left soon after that. Is that where they found you?_"

"_Is Antarctica a flat place with white everywhere?_"

Death Adder nodded.

"_Then I guess that's a yes._" Iris answered, handing him the board.

"_What's your name, anyway?_"

"_Oh. It's Iris. And yours is Death Adder, right? Kind of intimidating._"

"_Actually, Death Adder is just my codename—they give you a nickname if you live through your experimentation._" He paused for a long moment before writing more. "_Iris is a pretty name. It's a shame you can't keep it._"

Iris felt her face heat up at the last part, but she didn't know why. "_Of course I can keep it. It'll just be the codenames we use when we write to each other. So what's your real name?_" she asked him.

It took him a few minutes before writing anything down. "_Roland. It's been so long that I can hardly remember. So I guess that's what we'll be calling each other?_"

Iris nodded, then stretched and yawned. "_I'm tired. I think I'll go to bed._" She looked around the 6x6x6 cube room. Everything was just white besides the door. Then she added, "_Even though there is no bed to sleep in._"

"_You get used to it after a while._"

Iris put the board back on two hinges that were on the wall, then lied on her back, but the fluorescent lights lining the ceiling edge were too bright to sleep with, so she rolled over and put her face in her arms to get some sleep.

* * *

Roland stood on the opposite side of the room, leaning on the wall with his arms folded, tail swishing back and forth, his solid yellow eyes staring at the sleeping girl. It had been so long since someone had ever talked to him, and he thanked the men who had given him the dry erase board—it had in fact been to make fun of him for not being able to speak, but it certainly was coming in handy. Even though Iris had cowered when she first saw him, she soon came over her fear, and he admired her bravery and was glad that she decided to trust him. She seemed to be only about twelve, three years younger than himself, but she was very mature. _If they amplified her powers, I wonder what kind of power she possesses now?_ he thought to himself. Suddenly she lifted her head up, and her eyes were bloodshot badly. She put her fingers in her ears to block out the moans and screaming from the nocturnal beings in the hall, then put her face down on the floor to block the light. When neither of those tactics were working, she started pounding her head on the ground repeatedly. Roland felt bad for her because that's how he felt with his first night in the cell, but he eventually had gotten over it, so he didn't know what to do for her.

* * *

Iris had just nodded off to sleep for about twenty seconds when an alarming ringing/buzzing noise sounded throughout the hall, waking everyone up. She lifted her head up, the look of utter tiredness, and her eyes drifted over to Roland, who was still leaning on the opposite wall. He was holding the board. "_Good morning,_" it read. Iris slammed her head back down. The squeaks of a marker could be heard, and she looked up again to read, "_They're bringing everyone breakfast. It's based on the tests they took on you yesterday and what they'll be using you for._" Iris grimaced, but sat up despite of her weariness. It wasn't long before their window opened, the bars were mechanically pulled upwards, and two sealed paper bags were thrown in with writing on each of them, then the window closed and the bars came back down.

Iris opened up one of the bags and reached inside—only to have her finger clasp around…something…but what, she couldn't tell. When she pulled out a little bit of the substance and tasted it, she cringed at the saltiness and discomposing flavor of it all. Covering her mouth with both hands, trying not to hurl, she looked at the name on the bag. _Death Adder, 47_. She grimaced, then reached for the next bag, but Roland was holding it. When he handed it to her, she smiled with thanks and gave him his breakfast. _How can he eat something so repulsive?_ she thought to herself, hoping that her breakfast wouldn't be as disgusting. When she looked at the bag, it read _Convert, 47_. Iris raised an eyebrow at the codename, but opened it up to see what her food was nonetheless. It smelled…earthy. Really earthy. Almost like dirt. With a frown she reached inside and pulled out two things that looked like green and tan gumballs. When she put it in her mouth, it was probably worse than eating dirt. Iris swallowed, her face turning slightly green, and closed the bag back up—until her stomach growled. With an angry sigh, she opened the bag up and started swallowing them whole so she wouldn't taste them, and after the total of fifteen was finished, she felt slightly filled up.

Suddenly a tile on the floor dropped, revealing a black nothingness. Iris peered down it, then watched as Roland dropped the garbage down the shoot, fading away into the darkness. When the calculation of the weight was recorded, the tile lifted and closed itself again, completely ordinary again. Iris looked up when the door opened, and two men were standing there. "We're here for Convert," one of them stated. Iris stood, waving goodbye to Roland, who nodded her off, and then she walked out. The two men grabbed her arms and led her down the hall. It wasn't long before they brought her to a large room that was white…like a lot of the other rooms. This room was much bigger than her cell, and Neeka was waiting there for her. When the two men left, the door closed behind them.

"So, would you care to show me your powers?" she asked. Iris could sense a positive energy around her—an energy that was corrupted. When Iris didn't move, she continued, "No matter. I already know that you can convert and control all types of elements and energy. You'll be forced to use them once the session begins. You'll be fighting against other modified Mutants—like yourself, only they will have been modified by other members of HYDRA. They should be arriving shortly." Iris raised her eyebrows, but Neeka ignored her. Spinning on her heel, she walked to the other side of the room and through another automatic door, appearing behind a glass wall where six other adults were standing. Iris guessed that those were the other HYDRA members that Neeka had mentioned. The door behind her opened, making her quickly turn around to observe the new arrival. It was a young man about her own age, but he looked like a regular Human. His suit was plain white and cut off at the elbows and knees, and his hair was short, ruffled, and blonde. He too was escorted by two HYDRA guards, and was left almost at once. The blonde boy walked with a proud strut over to the wall, which he leaned against, crossing his arms and grinning at her with a dazzling smile.

Iris's attention was diverted once the doors opened again. A girl who looked to be in her late teens was left by two more guards. Her skin was black and scaly, etching her muscles, wide hips, and chiseled features. Her long black hair looked more like a long cape than many individual strands like usual hair. What seemed even more odd was that she wasn't wearing a suit at all. Her haughty look as strode by Iris clearly showed how sure of herself she was.

The other four Mutants were just as strange. One was absolutely humongous, with muscles that looked too big to be possible; another had a strange thin look to her, like she had been stretched out vertically, with white skin and gigantic black almond shaped eyes. The fifth was another boy, who seemed normal until he tripped, his ankle and knee bending backwards painlessly, and then his elbow doing the same when he fell on his hands to break his fall. The last one was a girl, about the same age as her, with brown hair and tan skin. She had a stern, almost hateful look on her face as she shrugged off the guards' grips and walked further into the room. She crossed her arms angrily and gave a challenging glance around the room.

Suddenly a voice filled the room, coming from unseen speakers. "First in the room is Convert, if you would please raise your hand." Iris raised her hand, looking around curiously and slightly afraid to see where the speakers were coming from. A list of names was gone through, and each raised their hand accordingly. "And last is X-23." The girl with brown hair lifted two fingers, but refused to do any more than that. "If you would listen, I'm going to prepare you for what is about to take place. This is a free for all brawl, the last two Mutants standing will not get eliminated. No rules other than you cannot use outside resources. When the buzzer goes off, you may begin." Iris swallowed; she wasn't ready for her first fight. In fact, she didn't know how to fight at all, or how to use her powers. Surely she was going to lose. There wasn't an ounce of hope for her.

But her thoughts were interrupted when a loud noise sounded throughout the room, an irritating noise that made her cover her ears. She soon realized that the noise was the buzzer that signaled the start, so she looked around to see what was going on. Bad move, because in a fight you don't have time to think—you just act, so she was astounded when she saw the blonde boy transform into an insect-like humanoid, then lunge at her with stingers for hands. Immediately Iris did the first and easiest thing that came to mind and that she remembered how to do. Focusing on the air particles around her, she combusted the space in front of her into fire. It consumed the boy, but suddenly he flew upwards, having transformed himself into a bird-like humanoid. The fire dissipated from her surprise, but her thoughts were soon changed when it felt like she had been hit in the back by a car. Slamming into the wall, Iris could feel many bones in her body break. Taking the energy in the air, she converted it into a pure energy that her body needed, instantly—and painfully—healing her broken bones.

Looking at the fight scene, it was easy to tell that all of these Mutants were skilled fighters. What was she doing amongst them? Sweat was pouring off of Iris's forehead as she tried to figure a way to defeat all of them. She doubted that her power was nearly strong enough to combust a large amount of air into fire to burn them all, and she had no idea how to do much else. The girl that was called X-23 didn't have any injury whatsoever, although she was inflicting a lot of damage onto the others with four metal claws protruding from her hands…. Iris's memory was triggered, something hazy but still there. In her inner eye she could see a gruff man that she remembered was called Wolverine, and he had six claws, very much like the ones the X-23 had…

Shaking her head, Iris concentrated on the fight. She took hold of a small group of air and started making a tornado—but it turned out more like a small gust of air; she wasn't able to keep control of it for very long, something she was going to have to practice. But then she noticed something simpler that came in abundance: Everyone else's physical energy. It was coming off in profuse waves, and Iris had a feeling that if she tried hard enough, she would be able to harness it and propel it back at someone with twice the force. She stroked her chin, wondering if it was a good idea or not—until a shadow came over her. It was the extremely big Mutant, the one with super strength. She raised her eyebrows as he raised a fist, getting ready to test out her idea. As the fist came crashing through the air, she narrowed her eyes and concentrated, and his fist stopped in midair as if it had hit a wall. Looking slightly confused, he tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge. All the energy he used trying to move his arm was feeding Iris's energy buildup, getting ready to throw it at him. Moving her hands around as if molding a clay sphere, she shaped all the energy in a tight confinement between her hands, then lunged forward, her hands colliding with the Mutant's stomach. At first, nothing happened, but after a moment's shock, a wave pulsed throughout the room, sending her rival across the room and knocking everyone else off their feet. The strong Mutant fell from the wall, revealing multiple cracks; he was clearly unconscious. Iris jumped up jubilantly, gleeful that her plan had worked, but also drawing much unwanted attention her way. The shapeshifting boy, who was some sort of reptilian humanoid, turned into a canine humanoid, reminding Iris of something like a werewolf, and jumped across the length of the room at her. Fear struck her heart at the sight of so many sharp teeth coming at her, and she held her hands up to protect herself instinctively, though she knew they would have little effect. It would be only a split second before her arms would collapse under the pressure of impact…

But instead, she heard a deafening yelp and something that resembled a sonic boom. When she opened her eyes, she saw the humanoid had been thrown back, and was limping badly. Even as he tried to get away, the other four attacked him, and he was lost under a pile of other Mutants. Blood was thrown across the floor and walls, but Iris tried to ignore it as she looked at her hands, trying to figure out what happened. She had a searing feeling that bubbled inside her—triumph. Narrowing her eyes, she realized that she had converted her fear—emotional energy—into a psychic burst—mental energy—which was released from her hands, making it physical energy. Perhaps she was getting the hang of the whole converting subject…. Turning her head over to the other Mutants, she watched them each back away, revealing a torn carcass of a canine humanoid. It shifted back into the Mutant's usual form, only with many more gashes in his flesh—he seemed to Iris that he was dead. She gave a glance over to the adults behind the glass wall. Each of them were in unique green suits, clearly showing their authority compared to the other minions, who wore an unvarying green uniform. Two of them looked devastated—probably the ones who owned the two losing Mutants—and four others looked unsure, but Neeka was grinning evilly, but why Iris wasn't sure of.

Now that the other Mutants were done taking the opportunity of killing the shapeshifter, they each had the mind to get rid of Iris, since she seemed to have a higher advantage. The tall one with white skin outstretched a hand towards her, and pressure started coming from all sides. Iris was immobilized from it, and it wouldn't be long before the bendy kid would be able to strike her. Iris furrowed her brow and concentrated, but the force against her was too great for her to overcome it. The boy ran at her, fist cocked back and ready to punch. Closer and closer it came to her face—until it was just inches from hitting her. But he was thrown off his feet by X-23, who tackled him to the ground out of nowhere. As they hit the ground, the boy's spine bent every which way, making it difficult for the girl to keep a good grasp on him. She grabbed his neck, her hand raised high above her head with claws extended, her knees on either side of his twisted body. Her hair fell over her face wildly, and within a split second her claws were stuck through his head. Iris concentrated as hard as she could when she noticed the girl with black skin jumped at least twenty feet in the air, doing multiple turns and twists in midair, her hair flying around her like a streamer. She blew the air gently, and frost started making its way to Iris, her jump aiming to land behind Iris. But she was ready. Using the force that was causing all the pressure on her, she sent it in the opposite direction, sending it in every direction away from her. The ice broke into multiple shards, piercing the tall girl with severe accuracy and pinning her to the wall, blue blood leaking from the holes that were stabbed in her, her long white dress torn. The other girl with the odd hair was sent backwards before she could even touch the ground. Iris turned to look at her, but her body was limp and hanging from two blades. She fell to the ground when X-23 retracted her claws, then the two remainders looked over at the adults who were filing out through the doorway, the majority looking grim.

Neeka approached Iris, clapping her hands in congratulations. "Well done for your first lesson!" she praised. X-23 looked at her in surprise; it was unheard of to put a beginner in the chamber with experienced fighters—let alone using the fighting chamber as a first lesson. "I think you'll do great for HYDRA. Come with me." She led her back behind the glass wall where the control panel was, along with the other owners and X-23. Pressing a button, she said, "Send down four escorts to the A-37 Fighting Chamber." Then she turned to Iris. "Convert, this is what happens to the losers of a fighting match." Pressing another button, ceiling sprinklers came down from the ceiling, drenching everything in the room. The very big Mutant that Iris had knocked out woke up suddenly, his eyes wide and fearful. He ran to the door that led behind the glass wall and pounded on it, but no one moved to unlock it. When the sprinklers stopped, they moved across the ceiling, following grooves until they were each in pairs. The jagged spigots spinning around, the pairs made sparks that fell to the ground. Once the first spark hit the floor, flames spread across the room, burning everything. Iris's jaw dropped and she jumped backwards, wondering how it happened. As if hearing her question, Neeka explained, "We've drenched everything with gasoline, so when the sparks hit, the fire spreads." Over the roar of the fire, she could hear the screams of the only life Mutant in the burning room. Horror spread across her face as she looked at the flames before her, but X-23 seemed unaffected by it. Pressing yet another button, a shoot appeared out of the wall, pouring sand inside to put out the flames. Once the whole room was filled about halfway, the floor split in half and dropped, held only by hinges, to drop the remnants of the sand and burned bodies. When the floor closed, water sprayed everything down, then was dried by dropdown fans in about ten seconds, making the room look shiny and new again. When they walked out, the white tiles shone, and the four escorts walked in, two each taking a Mutant. X-23 and Iris were directed separate ways to their cells, and when Iris walked in, Roland was waiting.

"_How did training go?_" the dry erase board read.

"_I had to go in the fighting chamber, but everything turned out okay. I was one of the winners, but I feel bad for the ones who got killed._"

"_That's surprising; most Mutants don't get to go into the Fighting Chamber until they're done with training. I guess Neeka really sees something in you. Or she's just careless, either one. And don't feel bad for the ones that died; they were just going to die by someone else's hand later on. Until HYDRA perfects a Mutant to be indestructible, they'll just keep having lesser Mutants tear each other apart._"

"_Have you ever been to the Fighting Chamber?_"

"_Yes. Before today, I was Neeka's only winner for the Fighting Chamber. Every one of her other Mutants were failures; most of the ones that are in theses cells can't even be trained because their brains were altered. I have to go to the FC tomorrow, actually._"

"_We have to go to the FC more than once? But I don't like killing people._"

"_I know how you feel. I don't like it either, so I try to make things as quick and painless as possible, but if you don't kill them, they'll kill you._"

Iris looked down glumly; she had a feeling that she wasn't going to like her new life. "_I wish Mneme hadn't died._"


	25. Chapter TwentyFive

_Sorry it's so short, but the next chapter is going to be relatively long, so enjoy!_

_Oh, and I've got another picture up if you wanna go see it, so you can get to it from my profile. ^^_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution, _any of its characters, or _Death Adder_._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris because I made them up._**

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

"_Wow. I'm sorry about what happened to Mneme, and what happened to Pietro confuses me too. It's almost as if he didn't remember Mneme at all. Perhaps he really was acting the whole time, but I'm suspecting something more._" Roland wrote after Iris explained in detail what she had seen before crawling away and concealing herself in an ice dome.

Iris didn't write for a while, but eventually scrawled down, "_Have you ever thought of getting out of here?_"

"_No._"

Iris furrowed her brow at him, knowing it was a lie.

"_Okay, I have. But I never planned anything because I'm not sure how vulnerable I'd be to the outside elements._"

She stroked her chin, wondering. Taking his hand, which was scaled and cold, she changed the air around it into plant life. It wrapped around his arm, but he tore it off and shook his head.

"_That's not what I meant. I guess it would be more appropriate for me to say I'm more concerned about how the outside world will react to me._" His fists were clenched angrily, as if he regretted ever being born.

Iris put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, holding up the board for him to read. "_Professor Xavier can help you. He has image inducers that make you appear to be Human._"

"_That's not the point. I guess I'm just upset that my father would submit me to be a science experiment. I'm sure you wouldn't understand._"

"_Yes, I do. My father tried to kill me as a child. I still want revenge. I don't remember my real mother, but Mneme and Pietro were going to be my adoptive parents. I guess they still are since their names are on the papers. You know, Mneme was a science experiment also, only on different terms._"

"_She was? What do you mean?_"

"_I'm not too sure. I never got told the story, but I've heard her mention it a few times. All I know is that she got out of control and killed them._"

Suddenly the door opened, and their dinner was tossed in without a glance. Iris used the same eating tactics as before, then yawned after throwing her trash away.

"_Good night!_" Roland wrote, but Iris was already fast asleep on the cold floor. He sat next to her with his legs crossed, looking at her with an unreadable expression. Slowly, hesitantly, he outstretched a hand to move back her hair, which was slightly askew from fighting earlier. He had wanted to do that since the moment he saw it, but was too nervous to do it while they passed the dry erase board back in forth. He pursed his lips behind his mask, which made him able to breath out of the water, and moved to the other side of the room, knowing he had already gone too far. Even so, he couldn't help but to keep his eyes glued on her…

* * *

Pietro laughed to himself as he walked over to the table, where he had called a meeting. "Did you hear about our new mission from Magneto?"

"You know we haven't, so just tell us already," Lance said impatiently, not up for Pietro's antics at the moment.

The silver haired boy sat down at the head of the table, his hands clasped in a businesslike manner, but the grin on his face giving the opposite affect. "Xavier and the other lamebrains have been looking for Iris, who's dead in Antarctica, so chances are that they're going to be doing another search since they didn't find anything. All we're supposed to do is get some information on any of their goals, and when Xavier leaves, it'll be a perfect opportunity to run in and scrap up anything we can get." Pietro sounded very pleased with himself for coming up with this plan, but no one else seemed very impressed. He looked up as something in the corner flashed, something white and silvery turquoise, but there was nothing there when he looked clearly at the spot.

"And what if they don't leave, yo?" Todd asked, pointing out something very crucial.

"The X-Men are always going off to different places," he assured, putting his attention back on the group, "so if they don't go to Antarctica, it won't be long before they've got to go somewhere else." A sigh could be heard throughout the room, a very emotional sigh. Lance raised an eyebrow at Fred.

"Dude, you sound like a girl."

It took a moment for that to register in Fred's brain, but when it did, he stood up and leaned across the table, taking Lance's collar. "That wasn't me and I don't sound like no girl!" he spat, throwing Lance back in his seat.

"Well if it wasn't any of us, who was it?" Todd asked curiously.

But Pietro was immobilized, lost deep in thought: He had heard that soundsomewhere before, and as far as he remembered it wasn't from anyone welcome by the Brotherhood.

* * *

Early in the morning, Xavier was torn on what to do next: Logan was set on going to HYDRA as soon as possible, but judging on the information that Jean had given him, it would be smart to stay put since they were still a potential target. He rubbed his temples, trying to clear his mind, but things at the institute were so cluttered lately. He sat in front of the open window, wondering if fresh air would help, but if anything his mind was even more distracted: All he could hear was the noise of some bird. When Xavier opened his eyes and reached to close the window, he saw that the noise was coming from a dove that was perched on the windowsill. A small rolled piece of paper was clutched in its beak, and when opened, it read, "_Going to help Iris. It may take a few days. The Brotherhood are planning an attack, so don't leave the institute. Love, Mneme._" Xavier raised an eyebrow questioningly, wondering which of the younger Mutants would play such a prank on him. But when he looked up at the dove, it flew down to Mneme's tombstone and fluttered its wings assuredly. Of course, that had to be coincidence—but then again, Jamie was on the verge of soiling himself the day before, claiming to have seen a ghost with long wavy hair and cloudy eyes…. Perhaps it wasn't a trick.

* * *

Rogue looked around to make sure the coast was clear, then bolted for the school gates, where Gambit was waiting just beyond there, but that was to be expected for a long while, so that wasn't of much concern. Kurt seemed very down as he took out his books, as did everyone else who was with the X-Men. As Kitty opened her locker door, the reflection of someone in her magnetic mirror caught her eye. She stopped in her tracks and moved the locker door to turn the mirror where it had been when she had seen it—and it was still there! Kitty spun around in awe and fear, but she saw nothing. Confused and a little downhearted, she looked back in the mirror, but Mneme's reflection was no longer there.

* * *

Iris didn't like being alone in the cell. Roland had been taken away to the Fighting Chamber after breakfast and a small hug for good luck, and she still felt like her arms were wrapped around him. It looked like the walls were closing in on her, but every time she blinked they would start back over from where they originally were and begin coming closer. She lost track of time, though she knew that her estimation of hours was probably off—in fact, it had probably been only a few minutes. In boredom, she picked up the dry erase board and started drawing a picture, just a random doodle that she did almost subconsciously. Before she knew it, her eyes were filling up with tears and washing away the memory she had drawn. At first she just stood staring at the picture, but she soon pulled her knees up, resting her elbows on them and burying her eyes into her forearms. Her chest rose and fell choppily from her silent sobs. Was her life going to go on like this forever? There was no love in that awful place, no morning light, no day or night; it didn't even seem like the world was turning around. Where was the music, the laughter? A chill ran down her spine, straightening her up. She looked down at her hands—they were much different…much older, sagging more and gaining more wrinkles the more memories that passed through her mind, but she knew it was just a dream. Tears dripped down, signing her face, wishing she could just go back.

Waking up, she shook her head vigorously, trying to convince herself that she wouldn't be there her whole life. Looking up when someone tapped her on the shoulder, she expected to see Roland, so she dried her face quickly, but it wasn't him. Her eyes widened at who she saw. "Hello!" a silvery Mneme greeted with a smile. Her body was transparent and shimmering, making Iris realize that she hadn't gotten up, just transitioned into another dream. It was a few moments before Mneme's smile faded. "Aren't you going to say hello? Or do you not remember me?"

Iris tried to speak since it was just a dream, but felt a great pain in her throat and started coughing. But you can't feel pain in a dream, so what was going on? She reached for the board, writing, "_I'm a mute now._"

Mneme raised her eyebrows. "You don't say! That's something I wasn't expecting…" she said with her head tilted. "But I didn't expect you to be almost my age, either!" Mneme added with a grin, scratching the back of her neck. "I'm here to get you out, but it's going to be difficult with so many HYDRA guards around…but I think we can handle it." She sat beside Iris, reading what she wrote.

"_You're here to get me out? How?_"

"I'm not sure yet," she admitted sheepishly. "I was hoping that you would know a bit more about this place than I do. Do you know of any shoots or secret tunnels?"

"_There's the garbage shoot, but it's too small for anyone to fit through._"

Mneme frowned at this. "Nothing else?" Iris shook her head.

But then something came to mind, and she scribbled down, "_There's the floor in the Fighting Chamber. It splits in half to drop all the sand and carcasses that are in the room. Could we use that?_"

"How does it work?"

Iris started drawing a sloppy diagram with stick figures of the room, showing where the floor splits and how the buttons on the control panel activate different functions. Mneme nodded as Iris wrote down captions for everything. Then she looked at her questioningly.

"That's perfect! You could fake your death, and escape uninjured since the elements don't hurt you. I'll scout out below to make sure it's safe enough for you to fall down that far before we make any mistakes…. I wish I still had my powers, then I could just teleport you out, but this will be a good way. If you can get down there, then you can use fire to light the way. Any ideas for what to do after that?" Mneme asked her.

Iris thought a moment, erasing the diagram. "_I could make the walls or rock turn into air or water._" she suggested.

"You can do that?" Mneme asked, bewildered. Iris nodded. "You're growing up so fast!" she cried out, wrapping her arms around Iris like any mother would do. Iris shivered, Mneme's ghostly touch icy cold. "Oh—sorry…" Mneme moved away, and noticed a sad look on her face. "What's wrong?"

Iris gave a silent sigh. "_My friend Roland is here also. Will he be able to come with us?_"

Mneme put her hand on her chin and thought for a moment. "Well, if he's with you in the Fighting Chamber at the time, but if he's not, I can always come back and get him," she explained with a shrug. Iris's expression brightened with hope, but both of their attention was turned to the door, which just opened. Mneme quickly turned herself invisible—Iris guessed it came with being a ghost—and they watched as her roommate was released by the two guards. The door quickly shut behind him, and Iris smiled up at him.

"_You won!_" she wrote.

He took the board, but it was moments before he wrote anything, his eyes staring at where Mneme was sitting. "_Who is that?_"

Mneme stiffened, turning herself visible. "You can see me?!" Iris looked just as surprised as she.

He erased the board and wrote, "_Yes. You look very cold._"

The ghost furrowed her brow. "That's mean."

His shoulders slumped. "_That's not what I meant. I see things by heat, and your body temperature is much colder than room temperature._"

"Oh!" Mneme said, feeling a little foolish. "Of course you can see me if you have heat vision. You probably didn't even realize that I'm not mortal."

"_I did. You're a ghost. I could sense the paranormal waves emitting from you._"

"Let me guess, that's Roland?" Mneme asked, her expression a little defeated. Iris nodded with a smile. "I'm Mneme, Iris's adoptive mother." She stood up and outstretched a hand. Roland went to shake it, but it slipped through. Roland looked at her apathetically as she giggled to herself: That girl was definitely off her rocker. "Okay," she said, straightening up, "I'm going to go scout things out and figure out a plan for you two to escape." She floated over to the door. Roland tried to grab her arm to stop her, but it simply went like through her as if she was a shape of mist, and then she phased through.

"_What is it?_" Iris asked.

Roland's temple was throbbing and his fists were clenched angrily, but eventually he took the board and wrote, "_If she's planning on getting us out, I'd like to know how she's going to do it._"

"_She's going to use the FC. After she gets me out, she'll help you too._"

Once he read it, his expression softened. "_If she's using the FC, day after tomorrow will be perfect! Tomorrow is the last FC challenge, and once the ones from that fight are weeded out, only six Mutants will be eligible to fight. We'll be two of them, and I'm guessing X-23 will be another. After tomorrow, we'll be out of here in no time!_"

Iris was speechless, but her happiness was bubbling so much inside that she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, her feet lifted off the ground. Roland, a little too surprised to react immediately, got to his senses and used his tail to pry her off. After that, both of them were a little embarrassed, Iris's cheeks very red, and they didn't look at each other for a while.

* * *

Mneme floated down the hall, keeping herself invisible to the Humans and prisoners in the cells—even though most of those Mutants had some sort of ability where they could see her. A lot of them were very creepy looking, and whenever they saw or sensed her, they would jump at the door and try to attack her, but it was impossible for them to escape the cells. Even so, those Mutants didn't seem to notice, and continued their attempts to break free. Mneme suspected that they had some sort of mental defect from having been experimented on—were Roland and Iris the only halfway right Mutants around this place? The thought made her shudder, and she was just thankful that Iris's experimentation was a success. If Iris had turned out like any of the more unfortunate ones, Mneme wouldn't be able to take it.

Casting the thought aside, she continued to make her way around, scouting out the area and reading the names of signs, none that seemed important. Occasionally she would pass through a mortal on accident—or out of boredom—sending them a very bad chill that stopped the person in their tracks. Her shoulders slumped—the place was absolutely boring, just the same thing over and over, nothing pleasant about it. Even the auras around people were disturbed or tainted. Turning and phasing through a wall to head back to Iris and Roland, she paused when she saw something familiar out of the corner of her eye: The large room was dimly lit, but light was emitting from the glass test tubes that were thickly inset into the concrete, the ones that resembled her parents' almost perfectly… Turning her head, she saw two men snacking and chatting, a lot of electronics sitting around on the many control panels and computer desks.

"Neeka really pulled it off this time. I was surprised that the kid even survived."

"Yeah, but she knew that with all those failures in the past, one more screw-up Mutant and she'd be done for."

"But enhancing a Mutant's powers? Why hasn't anyone thought of that before? We could've taken over the world by now if Strucker had come up with that when he first started out."

Mneme furrowed her brow, concluding that Strucker must've been the founder of HYDRA. She just hoped that the technology the men were talking about wasn't similar to her parents'; she remembered…well, how she didn't have anything to remember because she didn't have a life, hadn't seen the sun, hadn't any intelligence…

"It doesn't matter then, what matters is now. If we can enhance all the Mutants' powers in this place, the world would be ours—and quick." He held up what looked like a bundle of money. "Everyone is dying to know how she did it, and they're willing to pay anything—some even up front!"

The other man sighed. "You know we can't do that. You know how HYDRA is split into seven separate studies, and this is all confidential to Neeka's workers. Besides, we haven't studied this enough. Didn't you see the place when we retrieved the information? There were things scattered everywhere in that underground lab, and two people were found dead." Mneme's eyes widened, hoping that her ears deceived her. "According to their notes, the experiment was doing great, and that they were going to increase the dosage of amplification. It's obvious that whatever they were experimented on escaped and killed them, because the pages were empty after that."

His friend looked too satisfied to be playing by the rules. "But don't you see? I've already handed it out to everyone." Mneme's jaw dropped, but there was no chance of her destroying the information without knowing where it was, so she hurried back to Roland and Iris.

When she returned, the two were passing the dry erase board back in forth, and Mneme saw that they were playing a game of hangman. "They've got my parents' notes!" she said, on the verge of hysterics. The other two waited for her to elaborate. "If they use it, they could create someone like me—only evil, like how I started off!" Iris's eyes widened, but Roland didn't seem affected.

"_What's so bad about that?_" he wrote. "_You're dead; you couldn't have been too tough._"

Mneme furrowed her brow. "I've got almost every power ever thought of, and it was my mistake to fight fairly against someone who had a well thought out plan," she said, her voice grating with hatred. "Now they know what flaws to avoid that my parents made, they're bound to create the most indestructible Mutant ever to live—perhaps something that will realize its power, turn on HYDRA, and destroy the world. For all we know, it could destroy the universe, then destroy the infinite parallel universes!" The other two looked at each other with confusion, not quite comprehending. "Okay, that last part was a bit confusing, but it's possible, and if it happens…all life ever created will be lost, destroying the concept of time, and if that happens, it will collapse on itself, starting everything all over again and—" She stopped when she realized the look on their faces. Mneme thought of a way that would show how great a danger the situation could result in, but she couldn't think of anything that explained how catastrophic it could all end without explaining a lot of other things…so she started from the beginning. "Alright," she sat down, "before it all started, before any star or planet or blackness, there was time…"

* * *

Pietro yawned as he walked down the street leisurely, feeling extremely lazy. Deciding to go take a nap, he started speeding home—until the sole of one of his shoes burst. He stopped dead in tracks, looking at the ripped rubber pieces scattered over the sidewalk. Lifting up his foot, he saw that it was worn all the way through. Rolling his eyes at the mishap, Pietro arrived at the house within a few seconds, his foot scraped from excessive running on the sidewalk. Walking up to his room, he opened up his dresser and started rummaging for his wallet. Once it was found, he walked down to the front door, seeing the guys laughing at the television, and for some reason it struck him oddly, like something was missing…

Shrugging it off, Pietro zoomed over to the mall, stopping in front of the automatic doors. A few girls passed, looking at his feet disgustedly. Looking down, he saw that his foot had left bloody prints—apparently without the sole of one of his shoes, running at about seventy miles an hour on concrete was going to rip open the exposed skin. Who would've guessed?

Rolling his eyes at the girls' reaction, he entered the mall and looked for the closest shoe store. Coming up to the directory, he scanned the first floor's map for a shoe store, but he didn't see any. Walking around to the other side for the second floor's map, he saw one shoe store—farthest store away from him. No problem. He was there in an instant, but he would've gotten there faster if those people on the escalator hadn't just been standing there—the people on the escalator who he pushed off the side. He chuckled at the thought when he walked into the store, tracking blood across the white tile. "I need a pair of super high quality running shoes. You got any?" he asked the cashier. He looked at him apathetically.

"It depends," he stated. "How much running do you do? And are you talking about actual running or just jogging?"

"I do a lot of running…" Pietro answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "And I run faster than anyone you would know."

The worker didn't take him literally, but told him, "These are our best running shoes," he said as he took a box out from underneath the black counter. "They have the highest durability and best plasticity, and were also rated the most comfortable shoe of the year."

Pietro raised his eyebrow. "I dunno what that means, but it sounds good. Where are they on the rack?" he asked, looking around to see if he could spot them. "Never mind, I see them." He walked over the farthest stand, weaving throughout the racks of shoes until he got to them. Boxes of organized sizes were stacked underneath the display, so he took out a random box to try it on. "Too small…too big…" He sorted through a few of them, then came to the perfect size, and indeed they were extremely comfortable—and flashy too. Taking them up to the counter, the cashier looked at him oddly.

"Is there blood in the other shoes too?" he asked with a nauseous look. "Never mind, I don't want to know…" He scanned the barcode and looked at the screen. "Seventy-seven eighty-four."

Pietro handed him some money and took the shoes.

"Uh, this is a five dollar bill—hey! Come back with those!"

Snickering, Pietro walked down to the food court. "That was too easy!" he said to himself, sitting down in one of the chairs and putting on his new shoes, leaving the old ones in the box on the table. "Now for a snack…"

"Pietro?" a familiar voice sounded. He turned around to see Rogue sitting across the way from Gambit. Surprisingly enough, she actually sounded happy to see him.

"Uh…hey. What's happening?"

"Nothing much," Remy answered in his Cajun accent, then turned to take a sip from his drink. "We were just—" He paused, looking to see where Rogue had gone in the last second. He turned to see her strangling Pietro on the floor.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" she was screaming, her gloved hands squeezed tightly around his neck. "YOU TRAITOR! YOU MADE EVERYONE BELIEVE YOU AND THEN YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON US?!"

"You don't understand!" he tried to yell back, but Rogue's grip made his voice sound more like a frog. Remy chuckled at how comical it looked, almost like something you'd see on a cartoon. Rogue started banging his head on the floor, and she meant absolute business. "Get off me!" he yelled out, kicking her off, then zooming out of sight. Remy helped Rogue off the ground, silently chuckling, and pushed her hair out of her face. Everyone in the food court was staring, probably wondering how the silver haired boy had gotten away so fast.

Remy and Rogue sat back down and acted as if nothing at all had happened, and went back to their food. "I should go after that jerk." she said, picking at her food with the fork.

"Just let it go. Beating him up won't bring your friend back," he pointed out. "Even though it would probably make you feel better…" he added after thinking about it for a few seconds.

Pietro ducked into a baby store, hiding behind a giant pile of stuffed animals. _They'd never look in here,_ he thought to himself. He looked around, thinking of what his best move would be to get out of the place, then saw Mneme pushing Iris in a stroller. "Oh good, it's you!" he shouted as he walked up to them. "I knew it was you who I saw in the house earlier." She looked at him as if he were crazy. "I know, you probably didn't think anyone saw you, but that's not the point. You see, Rogue just tried to kill me, so you've gotta tell her—and probably all of your other friends—how I didn't kill you or betray you because I was never really with you…and all that stuff…and all along I was just doing my job. You understand, right?" Mneme backed up a few steps, clearly frightened at how bold he was being. Pietro rubbed the back of his neck and looked down, taking a deep breath to ease his guilt. "Of all people I thought you'd be the one to—" He stopped when he looked back up and saw just a normal brown haired woman pushing a normal bald baby in a stroller. "WHAT?!" he shouted, jumping backwards into the stuffed animals. "You're not Mneme! What'd you do with her?" Pietro stopped, thinking to himself what was wrong with that whole picture. "Wait a minute—you were never Mneme," he realized. "Mneme was never standing there with Iris. She was never there because she's dead!" The woman gave him one last creeped out stare, then turned around and quickly walked away. Pietro ran to the entrance doors, then made his way outside to get some fresh air, trying to forget that he had ever imagined Mneme in that store. But it was much harder than he thought, and after what felt like an hour, he was finally making his way through the door to the house. He hit his head with his knuckles, trying to get the scene out of his mind, but he hand pictured her so clearly, so vividly—how could it not have been Mneme standing there? She looked so real…

"Hey! You there?" Lance asked from the couch, but Pietro didn't seem to hear him and just kept shuffling on, hitting his head.

"Get…out…of…my…head…" he said between rapping his knuckles on his head.

"Yo, he ain't lookin' too good." Todd pointed out.

"What's in his head?" Fred asked, and Lance sighed at his stupidity.

"Nothing, he's just having a mental breakdown. He goes through these every few months, remember?" Lance told them.

"Oh yeah…" Todd remembered, laughing to himself. "False alarm." The three slumped back into their seats and continued watching whatever was on the screen.

* * *

"…and that's why every single time you travel backwards or forwards in time, you're opening up a new parallel universe." Mneme finally finished, all her mathematical evidence on the dry erase board.

Roland tapped his chin thoughtfully. "_So if you wanted to go back in time and change something, things in Universe A wouldn't change because you'd be in Universe B?_" he wrote in a spare space.

Mneme nodded with a smile. "It's good that you're catching on. And for every universe, there's an infinite amount of parallel universes out there." Iris was just staring at the board blankly, clearly not understanding. "It's alright if you don't get it; it's very advanced, especially for someone who hasn't learned two plus two—which equals four," she clued her daughter in.

"_If they did make a Mutant as powerful as you say it could be, and it destroyed all the universes somehow, how would it survive?_" Roland asked.

"Well with every single power, don't you think that one of them would be the ability to survive with the mere essence of time?" Mneme replied, and Roland nodded his head in understanding, noticing how foolish it was for him to not consider that factor. "And of course that Mutant will have the concept of time, even without the turn of planets or the flickering of a star, so time would never be able to rebuild the universes as long as the Mutant would still be alive with time." It was silent for some time, so Mneme continued, "Who's ready to come up with a plan for tomorrow to retrieve the original and copies of the documents?"


	26. Chapter TwentySix

_I tried really hard to make this chapter interesting and to come up with an original conflict._

_I hope you enjoy this chapter! I included more X-Men this time, so hopefully it's better than the last chapter._

_And my Winter Party Picture is up on DeviantArt, so you can check it out. The link to my DA account is on my profile, or you can look up LonelyZoner._

_Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukah, and Happy Kwanzaa!_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution, **_**a****ny of its characters, or **_**Death Adder_._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris because I made them up._**

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

It was the day of the final challenge in the Fighting Chamber. Mneme was under a state of disappointment; after much thought, the three had realized that destroying the documents would be impossible without being caught. In fact, Roland and Iris would most likely be sentenced to death, so the whole idea was thrown away. It took some convincing, but eventually, Mneme admitted with a heavy heart that destroying the documents would have to be another day—if ever.

Soon after Roland and Iris's breakfasts, four guards came and took them down the halls, followed by an invisible Mneme. Once at the Fighting Chamber, they saw four others waiting for them. X-23 was there, as well as a silvery boy, a glittering pale girl, and a Mutant who looked as if it were made out of black nothingness. The pale girl looked at Mneme even though she was invisible, and a smile spread across her face. Mneme narrowed her eyes; she didn't like that smile—it was the manipulating type, and she didn't like the fact that the girl could see her…

A voice sounded on the intercom, "There will only be one winner today, so fight your very best." Roland and Iris exchanged quick glances; they were quite nervous, and slightly unsure about their plan. All they had to do was fake their deaths, then Iris would protect them from the fire and sand. After that, everything was bound to be easy. After the introductions were made, the buzzer sounded, and all the Mutants were off in half of a split second. Iris's first reaction was to form a force field around herself, and it was fortunate that she did because the silvery boy had aimed a kick straight at her. Iris was relieved, but a pit of worry grew in her stomach when she saw him grin. Suddenly he became a thin sheet of shiny liquid metal, then started seeping through the microscopic pores of the force field. Iris gasped and tried to convert the metal into another, but every time she had a hold of him, he would change into another. He had already reformed back into his original shape by the time Iris had even thought about retreating to another part of the room, and by that time it was too late. He aimed a punch for her head, which she dodged in the nick of time. Before he could bring his fist back, Iris changed the air around him to ice—but he easily slipped out of those pores. If he had the ability to change into any liquid metal he preferred, then there was no way she was ever going to be able to stop him.

Roland had been hoping that the other Mutants wouldn't pay attention to him and Iris so they could simply fake an attack and their deaths at the start of the battle, but unfortunately things hadn't worked out that way. While he had been getting ready to spring a fake attack on Iris, the shadow thing decided that he was going to attack him. After dodging a few punches, Roland aimed a kick for the odd Mutant's gut—but it didn't make contact. It didn't even go through it. In fact, in disappeared inside the creature, and some force started dragging the rest of his body inside of him. No matter how hard Roland tried, he couldn't pull his leg out. Taking a swipe at the other's face with his sharp claws, he got his fingertips stuck halfway through its head, and it started pulling him in by the fingertips also.

Mneme narrowed her eyes; things weren't going quite the way she had planned. At the rate things were going, Iris and Roland would be dead for real, and then she would be tied to the mortal world forever knowing that Iris didn't live a happy life. She sped to go lend a hand to Iris, but something stopped her in her tracks. Suddenly she had no control over her body, and her eyes could see the shimmering girl with her hand out; it was apparent that she had taken her over. The girl known as X-23 had her claws extended and ready to tear gashes into that girl, but the glittering one forced Mneme to hit her straight in the face, making her fly across the room and hit the wall. X-23 never had a chance against an invisible, scentless puppet. Mneme struggled to get out of the girl's hold, but it was impossible without her powers…

* * *

Xavier looked up at Cerebro's screen, looking at the younger students' whereabouts in Cambodia. Wolverine had just brought the jet in after an all night trip there and back. The screen flickered for a moment, then went back to tracking—but it suddenly went blank. He took off the helmet, and he felt pressure in his head, but it soon went away. Shaking off the odd feeling, Xavier went down to the kitchen, where he found Storm. She was gazing out the window with a confused look on her face. "Is everything alright?" he asked her.

It was a moment before she answered. "The forecast—this morning it said there wasn't going to be a cloud in sight, and now it's raining."

"The weatherman often is wrong," Xavier reminded. "It's nothing you can't fix."

"But that's the problem…. I—I can't make the clouds disappear. There's something wrong with me," she said, staring at the floor as if it were hard to concentrate on anything. Xavier furrowed his brow, wondering what could be the matter.

"Let's bring you to Hank. He'll probably be able to identify the issue."

They made their way to Hank's lab, and he was standing in front of some scientific equipment, looking puzzled. "Oh, hello," he greeted. "I was just trying to figure this thing out; all of a sudden all my machines went on the fritz. Even the humidity reader isn't working right. Some of my chemicals are reacting strangely also…" he added, mainly talking to himself.

Ororo looked disappointed. "Then you won't be able to tell me why my powers aren't working?"

"What do you mean they're not working?" he asked.

"I couldn't take control of the weather—even after minutes of trying," she explained desperately.

Xavier thought for a moment. "Cerebro is also working improperly. Do you think what's happening to Ororo and the electronics may have a correlation?"

Hank tried to take it into consideration, but it was so unlikely that the two problems were related that he had a hard time thinking of anything that could have an effect on both. "There are few things that could trigger such things, and even for those things percentages are slim…" he said doubtfully.

The three turned when the door opened, only to see Logan standing there. He was covered in sweat and his teeth were grinding quite tightly. He was hunched over and clutching his stomach. "Something ain't right…" he managed to say through his gritted teeth. He tried to walk over to them, but even that seemed like a painful struggle, so Ororo and Hank ran over to him immediately, catching him as his knees locked up. They rested him on the ground, but even then Logan was very stiff, as if his bones and joints were fused together.

"Hank, I think a few possible things were just crossed off your list on what could be causing all this," Xavier said.

He furrowed his brow. "The only thing that could do all of this is a drastic change in the Earth's magnetic fields, and that's highly unlikely." Xavier urged him to continue, and reluctantly he did. "But if it did happen, all satellite signals would be sent in other directions or scrambled, and all electronics would be damaged, probably beyond repair. And the fact of mega natural disasters..."

* * *

Iris got ready to dodge another hit from the liquid metal boy when suddenly he collapsed to the ground, screaming out in pain, his shape becoming distorted. Unsure of what to do, Iris looked around. X-23 was also curled on the ground, although she looked stiffer, and the force that was pulling Roland inside the black nothingness suddenly spit him out. Mneme suddenly had control of her body again, but it wasn't very reassuring; she could tell that something wasn't right…

Behind the glass wall, the five HYDRA members were trying to figure out what was wrong with the control panel; for some reason they couldn't access the intercom. Iris knelt down to help the liquid metal boy, but when she touched him there was no reaction. The way chunks of his body were being pulled, it looked almost as if someone was sticking a spoon into him and pulling the liquid metal at an odd angle, then let it slip off the spoon so it would snap back into its regular shape. Iris shook him, but he didn't react; he wasn't yelling or writhing in pain, so she assumed he was dead and moved over to X-23. Iris could feel a very strong magnetic pull on her bones—which she guessed were made out of metal—but when she tried to reverse the force, Iris found that her powers weren't strong enough against it. So what was it?

The shadow kid tried to punch Roland, but it was easily dodged, and now that his invincible power was no longer of any use, the amphibious Mutant gave him a roundhouse kick to the head, knocking the other completely unconscious. He saw Mneme lose her temper with the shimmering girl and grab her face, smashing her head against the wall repeatedly. After she had had her revenge, the two approached Iris—but they had more to worry about. For some unknown reason, the ceiling sprinklers were showering gasoline over every surface of the room, and at the same time making sparks.

"This isn't supposed to be happening!" Neeka squealed in alarm, pressing every button on the control panel until she finally gave up and kicked it. Sparks flew and the Fighting Chamber floor opened up, sand pouring from a shoot in the wall. The other four looked at her, ready to place the blame on someone.

Iris formed a force field around the three Mutants and the ghost, trying her best to keep them all safe from the fire and sand as they fell what felt like hundreds of feet. After about ten seconds of flying through the air in a spherical force field, they hit a surface. Their shield broke and they all skidded down a hill of sand, besides Mneme of course. Once Iris and Roland found their feet, they helped X-23 to stand, each of them holding an arm around their shoulders. Mneme floated down to them, and they looked at her with expectance. "We're pretty much at where we planned to be, with the exception of her," she said, gesturing to the extra Mutant in their group. "Once we find a wall, I can pass through it and make sure the way is clear. Then Iris will push the molecules of a small area of the wall elsewhere, making a hole for you to get through and also making the rest of the wall denser; we don't want this place collapsing on you because the wall was too weak."

* * *

It was lunchtime for the X-Men students, but many of them were feeling a little queasy, as were the Human students. Only a small portion of the school felt like eating, and even they weren't able to finish eating their food—besides Fred. Jean looked around the table at her sickly friends, and she couldn't help but think that the Brotherhood had something to do with it. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but only Fred and Todd happened to be at the lunch table, and Lance was by the door as if he was waiting for something—either that or he didn't feel like putting up with the two weirdos of the Brotherhood. But where was Pietro…? "Hey—where's Kitty?" Jean asked, realizing that she wasn't there.

"She got sick during class," Evan told her, hunched over and clutching his stomach. "She went to the nurse's office to lay down."

She looked at the others. Scott was laying his head on the cool table, probably trying to cease a headache, and Rogue was sleeping with her arms crossed on the table and her head resting on them. But Kurt's head was hanging like a sad puppy—and then Jean saw his skin flicker blue. He had noticed it too, because his eyes grew wide. He looked at his image inducer, and tiny sparks were flying through the air, his appearance flashing from Mutant Kurt to Human Kurt. Immediately he hid under the table, and Jean raised an eyebrow and ducked under to look at him. "What are you doing?! Teleport back to the mansion before someone sees you!"

He looked up at her with desperate eyes, which were flickering from white to blue. "I tried to earlier vhen it was acting up, but I couldn't teleport to the mansion—I ended up in a store!" he said in disbelief. "I can't control vhere I teleport, so I hid and tried to fix it. It vorked for a vhile, and now it's messing up again…" Kurt started tapping it with a blue finger, trying to get it to work. Jean bit her lip; he couldn't go through the rest of the school day like that, so she tried contacting Professor Xavier, but there was no answer—which was also very strange. She almost never had trouble contacting him from the school…. Jean thought for a moment, but then she saw Evan's leg—spikes were slowly growing out it. She lifted her head above the table, and to her horror he was covered in them.

"What's wrong?" he asked her, looking at her stunned face.

"Evan—get out of her! Get out of sight quickly!" she urged under her breath, trying to not attract too much attention, and so far it seemed that no one noticed him.

Confused, he raised a hand and asked, "Why would I do that?" But he suddenly realized when he saw himself. "What the—what's going on?!" he shouted, causing a few people to turn their heads, but they weren't able to see anything because all the lights went out, a shower of sparks falling down on the room. A few screams could be heard in the dark, and many chairs were scraped against the floor as people stood up.

"Get out you two!" Jean told them. "Now!" Obediently they made their way through the dark and to the doors, then ran across the lawn, hopped the fence, and got to the woods, then they started making their way to the mansion.

Rogue lifted her head sleepily from the table because of all the ruckus. "What's going on?" she said grumpily, trying to focus her eyes, but there was nothing but darkness. "Why are all the lights off?" She sniffed the air; something smelled funny. "And what's that smell?"

"Rogue!" Scott yelled, patting the fire out of her hair, caused by the sparks that fell from the lights. When the flames were gone, her hair was singed at the tips on one side, and she was about to make a suggestion on leaving school, but the doors to the lunchroom opened suddenly. The three looked up at the thin figured silhouette that stood in the doorway. They could tell it was Pietro because of his antennae-like hair, and judging by his slumped shoulders he was clearly tired. Jean tried her best to read their minds, but it was as if something was blocking her from doing so…. They watched intently as Lance had a short conversation with him, then went outside. The three X-Men looked at each other with concern. "Something's up."

"They probably had something to do with the lights going off," Rogue accused under her breath. "We should find out what they did—or what they're still doing," Jean added, getting up from the table, but Scott caught her sleeve.

"No, don't." He took a good look at the three Brotherhood members who were discussing something around the table, but they disappeared with the light as the door closed. "It looks like they're going in shifts to me; they're probably just spying on something, trying to get a good observation before they attack."

Rogue rested her chin on her hand; she hated all preplanning for figuring out something. Why not just go and find out instead of making all sorts of assumptions about something you're going to have to find out anyway?

"Well, we're going to have to find out what they're attacking, and why they're attacking it."

"Yeah, but how are we going to do that?"

Rogue rolled her eyes and shuffled over to the door, opening it. Without any power in the school, she decided she was free to do what she wanted. Suddenly someone pushed past her. "Hey! Watch it!"

"Sorry, Rogue," Jean apologized, and Rogue was slightly surprised to see her and Scott.

"Yeah, thanks for opening the door!" Scott said to her as he ran by and followed Jean. Rogue's shoulders drooped as she looked after them, but she straightened up when Scott turned around. "Aren't you coming?"

"Where?"

"We're going back to Professor Xavier. Are you coming?"

Rogue rubbed her arm; she had intended to track Lance, but if they knew that they'd want someone to accompany her. "Uh…sure, I guess." She made her way following Scott to his car, and the three of them buckled up. Scott stuck the key in the ignition and it revved up beautifully—or it was supposed to…

He tried it again, but nothing happened. "What? My car? Not my car!" he shouted, trying to start it again and again, but still nothing worked. The girls looked at him, but not with sympathy.

Jean cleared her throat to try and get his attention, but he continued to rest his forehead on the steering wheel. "Uh, Scott? It's okay…. You don't have to cry about your car," Jean said with assurance, but Scott wasn't listening. He wiped his eyes, and Rogue looked at him with concern; she didn't find it normal for men to cry. "We still have to get to the Professor, car or no car." He nodded, stepping out of the car, the girls doing the same.

"Shouldn't we get Kitty?" Rogue reminded. They looked at Scott, who sighed and walked inside the school, appearing a few minutes later with a very sickly Kitty.

"Okay, now we're off…"

* * *

Xavier looked out the window, trying to think of a way to stop such a disaster from continuing, but he had no control over the magnetic fields, and neither did anyone he knew, friend or enemy. The drastic change was also taking its toll on his brain—he couldn't read minds and he had trouble concentrating. Even when he tried to levitate something, his control wavered. Something had to be done quickly, or the whole world would succumb to natural disasters…. The Professor looked up as the front doors opened, and to his surprise it was Kurt and Evan. "Hello, boys. I see you've been having some trouble at school."

"Yes, Professor," Kurt said.

"We couldn't stay at school like this," Evan explained, referring to their appearances. "And the power went off all over the city. It's really crazy, what's happening."

"Yeah, people were so confused because their cars stopped vorking that they didn't even notice us running across the road. There vere a lot of accidents because not all the cars vent off at the same time, but eventually none of them vorked." Kurt told him with a slight chuckle, but Xavier didn't share his enthusiasm. The two boys looked at him expectantly.

"Mutant powers aren't working quite right, and electronics are completely useless now. As you can see, I've had to reside to a manual wheelchair." Xavier told them. They hadn't noticed it, but indeed he had. "But I will explain once everyone gets here. Where are the others?"

Kurt spoke up, "Kitty is still in the nurse's office…and Jean, Scott, and Rogue vere at the school last time I saw them—"

Suddenly the door burst open and a panting Jean, Scott, and Rogue were standing there, Kitty looking very scared and paralyzed in Scott's arms. "Dogs…chasing…crazy…" he managed to say, putting Kitty down on the couch and making his way to the kitchen for a drink.

"Powers…aren't working…" Jean said to the Professor, waiting for an explanation. Swallowing and trying to get her breath back, she continued, "Do you know…what's going on?"

"Indeed I do, and if you would all please take a seat at the table I'll tell you as much as I know about this."

* * *

"C'mon, let's get out of this joint," Pietro said to Todd and Fred as he stood up in the dark room. Some students had already left the lunchroom and gone out to seek a teacher, but others remained in the lunchroom confusedly.

"What about Lance, yo?" Todd asked as he hopped alongside Pietro, Fred in front of both of them, knocking people out of the way.

"He's supposed to meet us at the house, you idiot!" Pietro reminded rather harshly. "Did you think we'd still be in school at four o'clock?"

"I dunno, I never learned how to read analog clocks, and that's all they got in this school."

Pietro rolled his eyes. "Lance gets back at four, then you go until eight. If the coast still isn't clear, we'll send Fred until midnight. Got it?" he asked with a threatening tone, towering over the stooped boy. He didn't wait for an answer, but instead walked out under the cloudy sky after Fred. Pietro breathed a sigh of relaxation, then started walking across the parking lot, the other two following him.

"That's a long line of cars, yo," Todd commented as they got closer to the road. Cars were pulled over into the ditch, stopped on the road, and smashed into each other. None of them seemed to be running, so Pietro raised an eyebrow. For as far as he could see, not a single car was moving.

"What's up with that…?" he asked, mainly to himself. People were scrambling around, unsure of what to do or how to get to where they had been traveling. They continued walking down the side of the road, weaving through the pulled over cars and staring at the situation skeptically. "You think Lance figured out a way to make an earthquake inside an engine?" Pietro suggested, but then shook his head when he saw Lance's jeep among the mess. As the three came closer to it, they realized that he had smashed head on into the car in front of him, and Lance was still in the driver's seat, gripping the steering wheel angrily and staring at nothing.

"Yo, you okay?" Todd asked. Fred walked over to the car he had smashed, picked it up, and tossed it to the other side of the road.

"My car is RUINED!" he bellowed at the amphibious boy. Lance unbuckled and opened lifted up the crinkled hood of the car, and the engine wasn't any better off. Furious, he slammed the hood back down, but it simply snapped off and fell to the ground. Lance's eye twitched insanely; that jeep was half of his life!

Pietro approached him. "Relax. We'll steal you a new jeep and put this license plate on it." Lance held up his hand, signaling him to shut up; if he heard anything from that silver rat, he wasn't going to be able to control himself from punching his face in.

"Just leave me alone."

The silver haired boy snorted. "Fine. It's not my fault all these cars don't work anymore—" He stopped, then blinked as he realized something. Looking down at his watch—which happened to be broken also—to make sure, his guess was confirmed. "Wait a minute. If all this electronic stuff isn't working—wouldn't that mean a clear shot for us getting in?" The other three looked at him, realizing that he was right. "We won't have to go through those shifts, we can just think up a plan and sneak in!"

"Yeah, most of their protection comes from all that scientific machinery!" Todd said, his mood instantly brightened at the sound of a mission made simple. "This is gonna be easy."

"Exactly. Too easy…" Pietro added with a grin.

Neeka was brought before Viper, who was in charge of the pitiful woman. Very rarely did she ever get anything right, and just when things were starting to look promising, she had to screw everything up. "What do you have to say in your defense?" Viper asked her, her long green hair shining in the dimly lit room. It was lit with a candle because the electricity went out and the backup generator wasn't working for some reason…

"Madame Hydra, please, you have to understand that I didn't do anything—"

"You didn't? It sounds to me like you broke the Fighting Chamber and killed our most prized experiments."

"No! I didn't—I…I…"

"Kill her any way you'd like, just get her out of here…" Viper said, shaking her head and rubbing her temples.

"No! Wait! They might still be alive!" Neeka shouted as she struggled out of the grip of two guards. Viper waved them away.

Leaning her arms on the table, she spoke, "What makes you think that?"

"Convert, the Mutant who can control and convert the elements. I know she survived because extreme elements don't hurt her. Nothing but physical contact and mental manipulation can hurt her—and she probably protected Death Adder, the lizard boy who has claws tipped with poison. She's a kind soul—who knows who else she might have saved?" Neeka tried her best to sound convincing, but her voice still sounded desperate and pleading.

Viper narrowed her eyes. "Very well. You are to lead your squad on a search mission. If you fail, we'll kill you. If you try to run, I'll find you myself and murder you. Make the preparations yourself." After a few seconds' pause, she added, "You may go now." Neeka was unchained and escorted out of the door, a look of glee on her face. How she got to that rank, Viper would never be able to guess.

Neeka had already left to round up any men she could conjure up, starting with the locker room. When she walked in, a few men squeaked in surprise, not expecting to see a woman; there were only about five, ten at the most, in all of HYDRA. "Forget your scheduled showers, you're coming with me," she ordered, so they started putting their clothes back on. "What are you doing?! Take them with you! You can put them on when we get to the Fighting Chamber." A few of them exchanged wary glances, but followed her nonetheless. The next stop was the mess hall. Most everyone was only halfway done with their lunch, but they had no choice but to pull back down their masks and follow her. After only a few more sudden stops, they arrived at the armory. "Take whichever fits your fancy."

One man cleared his throat. "Shouldn't we know what our mission is before we choose a weapon?"

"We're retrieving the possibly escaped Mutants Convert and Death Adder, and maybe even some more. So choose whichever fits your fancy." Neeka repeated, then led them to the Fighting Chamber. When the door opened, the floor was still open. "Get ready to pull your parachute strings." And then she jumped down, pulling two others with her. The others followed, knowing they would be killed if they didn't follow.

* * *

Mneme stopped in her tracks, making Iris and Roland stop also. "Something's wrong…the atmosphere. I sense someone's presence." The other two listened closely, and they could hear an odd noise—almost as if a group of people were having a pillow fight. "Those are parachutes opening. Roland, can you see them?" He turned his head, and with his heat vision he was able to see many people hovering down; he nodded at Mneme, so she signaled for Iris to come forward. "The wall is just a few hundred yards farther. You can run up there and get a head start on making a passage; it's tough business. What do you say?" She nodded and started running clumsily across the sand, and Mneme took X-23's other arm and helped Roland carry her at a quicker pace over the sand and ashes. It wasn't long before Mneme stopped. "I'm not going any further. Take her to the wall while I hold them off." She was sure if Roland could speak, he would protest against her decision, but he simply shook his head in defiance. "They're after you and Iris; they can't hurt me, so just go." Mneme got into fighting stance, but soon relaxed when she saw that Roland still wasn't going. "Fine, we'll all get to the wall!" she agreed, and took X-23's arm again. It wasn't long before they caught up with Iris; unsurprisingly Roland was an extremely fast runner, and being a ghost Mneme naturally never ran out of energy. Iris turned when she heard them approach, and they could see by the fire's light that she had started a tunnel in what wasn't a wall, but just layers of dirt. "They really planned ahead—their network of underground buildings takes up about half of the Earth's crust, and this room takes up the other half. You're lucky you can breathe down here…well, at least she is," Mneme rephrased (Iris wasn't affected by the elements, so she could breathe just about anything and still live, while Roland had an air modifier for his gills so he could breathe out of water), gesturing to X-23, "but she's not even awake, so her body doesn't need that much oxygen." She paused and listened to the muffled, echoing sounds of many feet running across the sand. "They're getting closer…. Iris, how fast do you think you can have us to the surface?" Iris gave a shrug. Mneme vanished inside the solid wall of layered dirt. It was a few minutes before she returned. "It's about twenty-five yards out, then about twenty miles up, and forty miles diagonally so we can walk up it."

Iris stood in front of the spot where she had started the tunnel, then put her hands out, palms facing outward. Closing her eyes, she concentrated all her energy on moving the dirt molecules outward. Slowly it started to form a tunnel, making the dirt around it become denser, the layers shifting. Her hands started shaking and her eyes remained clenched tight, sweat forming on her brow, and the footsteps were getting closer still…. Suddenly Iris put her hands down and gave a sigh of relief, then started tilting. Roland left X-23 to Mneme and ran to catch Iris. It was no secret that the members of HYDRA were almost upon them, so with an unconscious Iris in his arms, he took the first step into the tunnel, followed by Mneme with X-23's arm over her shoulder and dragging her legs on the ground. They ran—or floated—up the sloping tunnel with their comatose friends, Roland's footing occasionally slipping, but quickly regaining his speed. Of course, carrying deadweights didn't make things any easier, but knowing that HYDRA could be gaining on them conjured up enough adrenaline to keep them going.

After about fifteen miles, Roland stopped for a quick breather. Laying Iris on the ground gently, he wrote on the smooth dirt wall with his claw. He could see it because of his heat vision, but Mneme had to hold her glowing skin up to it to see it.

"_Do you think they will have followed us this far?_" he had written.

"I honestly don't know—"

"Up here! I can hear them!" a voice shouted from far below, echoing up to them. Roland and Mneme looked at each other exasperatedly, but he picked up Iris nonetheless and they continued running. A heat behind her caught Mneme's attention, and she turned her head to see a burst of fire traveling their way—quickly. Roland must've felt it too, because he was certainly picking up the pace. It was just yards away and Mneme threw X-23 into Roland, knocking him to the ground, and then flew up into the tunnel's ceiling. In a few seconds, the fire was feet from scorching Roland and the two girls, but a piece of the ceiling collapsed and blocked the way, saving them from the fire and from HYDRA.

"Those fools. By using that flamethrower, they're using up their oxygen. If that person keeps firing it, the fire will bounce off those rocks and make them all crispy, and the ones that survive will suffocate. But there are always a few survivors, and those rocks won't keep them out." Mneme explained, then took the lead and X-23. "So let's go."

* * *

"As unfortunate and impossible as this may seem, the magnetic fields have drastically changed practically overnight, and the magnetic poles have flipped. This is scrambling our satellite signals, ruining our electronic devices, and somehow affecting the use of our powers." Xavier explained to them. "We have yet to figure out why it's happening and if someone is causing all of this. If there is a villain behind this, there's no doubt that they will be powerful. Of course, the magnetic poles flipping is a natural thing, and the magnetic fields changing along with it, but for it to change so suddenly is unheard of; it usually happens over a great course of time."

"The Brotherhood," Jean suggested. "They were acting very suspiciously today."

"I seriously doubt that they could have anything to do with this," Xavier answered.

"Vhat about Magneto?" Kurt asked. "Doesn't he control stuff like that? And he's evil, so he'd do it."

Xavier clasped his hands and rested his chin on them, his brow furrowed. He had been hoping that his once friend wouldn't succumb to such an evil deed as to kill everyone on the planet, but such failure could do so to one…. Even so, Xavier wasn't sure if Magneto was even powerful enough to swap the magnetic poles and change the magnetic fields of the whole Earth. But it was still something to keep in consideration…. "That is…a possibility…but we'd better hope that it's not him."

The others looked at each other with a bit of fear in their eyes. Those words coming from Xavier's mouth had not one ounce of a reassuring tone. "What are any other possible factors?" Kitty asked, looking a little better than from before. Honestly, she didn't like thinking about their archenemy bringing the world to an end, so she wanted to know something else that might be bringing it to an end.

"Besides another Mutant, the only thing we could think of was an outside force—meaning something not from Earth. It'd have to be something big, and it could be heading straight for us." Xavier told them, but because of the looks on their faces, he added, "or it could be simply passing by." The students let out a breath of relief. Then Xavier had a funny thought: a giant UFO was heading straight for the Earth…and then everyone died hating Xavier because he told them it "could simply be passing by". He grimaced at the thought, and quickly added, "But we don't know so don't get your hopes up about anything." Everyone exchanged worried glances.

"Are you saying 'outside forces' as in aliens?" Evan asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Possibly," Xavier answered with a shrug.

"How are we going to stop the aliens?!" Kitty asked, her eyes humongous, not looking much better from when she was at school.

"We don't know if—"

"How are we going to stop Magneto?!" Rogue corrected, furrowing her brow. "He's obviously the one behind all this."

"We don't know if it's—"

"Are you kidding? Magneto is way too wimpy to pull a stunt like that!" Scott argued, making Rogue look at him as if he were crazy—which it kind of was to talk about Magneto as if he was a harmless worm.

"Yeah, this sounds more like an 'outsider's' doing," Kurt said, taking sides with Kitty.

"I've seen a lot of movies where aliens try to destroy the Earth, and Magneto just wants to take it over, not kill everyone." Evan said, also taking sides with Kitty.

"That's absurd," Jean said. "Aliens? Please. This is something that Magneto would do one hundred percent."

"Erm…that's what I say, too!" Scott said, changing his mind to be on sides with Jean. Rogue rolled her eyes, but at least now it was equally divided.

"Professor, what do you say?" Jean asked.

"Well, I'm not taking sides, but we won't have any real information until our equipment is working again, and I fear that things might be too late by then."

"Can't we just go find Magneto?" Rogue asked him.

"We'd be searching aimlessly without our powers and working equipment."

"What about telescopes? Can't we see the aliens with telescopes?"

"All telescopes powerful enough to see far enough into space are electronic, so no. And we never said it was aliens—"

But nobody cared to listen any more. They were too busy arguing about aliens and Magneto, and eventually the subject reached Magneto was an alien, aliens had a hold of Magneto, Magneto and the aliens were working together, et cetera…

* * *

"Get everything you need before we start the attack!" Pietro ordered up the stairs from the living room. He crossed his arms feeling quite pleased with himself. He turned to get something out of the kitchen—but stopped seeing as something—or rather someone—was just two inches in front of him. Pietro straightened up and looked into the raging eyes of his father. He hadn't done anything wrong…yet…so he wondered why Magneto was there. "We've got it under control. We don't need your help—unless you're just here to take notes on what we're doing—" He stopped short when he saw Magneto's eyes narrow. "So…why are you here?"

"It's Xavier and his precious X-Men. Tampering with the magnetic fields to weaken me—my powers are absolutely useless," Magneto explained to his son, who raised an eyebrow.

"Useless?" He thought for a moment about when he had been on his shift spying. On the way there, he was speeding down the street absolutely fine, but when he went to run back to the school to tag Lance for his shift, he was only capable of fifteen miles an hour or so. Perhaps the changes in the magnetic field were affecting his powers also… "The X-Men did this? So they won't be affected…" Pietro realized, his hopes of a successful mission shattered. If all their defenses were up and their powers working, going up against them would be plain idiotic. He sighed, rubbing his temples as his head started throbbing.

"Precisely. They're trying to weaken us, crush our chances at making Humans the lesser race…"

Pietro lifted his head to look at his father, his expression changing from depressed to confused. "What do you mean to make them the 'lesser race'? I thought you were just going to kill them all."

"I've decided that things would be far more enjoyable if Humans were forced to be our slaves," he stated, lifting up his fist for dramatization.

Pietro shook his head; that didn't sound enjoyable at all. "Why?" He winced when his head started pounding; he guessed all this change in plans was too much stress for him to handle.

Magneto sighed and put down his clenched fist. "Mneme pointed out to me that if Humans can have Mutant children, Mutants could have normal Human children. Wiping out all the Humans would be pointless if they're just going to keep coming back," he told him. Pietro's eyes narrowed at the mention of that girl; somehow his memory of her seemed very…hazy, as if he was missing something, as if what he remembered wasn't quite the way things were… "It's too bad we had to kill her; if she had joined us, our forces would be impenetrable—"

Suddenly the door burst open, and Sabretooth walked in, followed by Gambit, Pyro, and Mastermind. Sabretooth immediately went to the kitchen, following his nose, while Pyro sat down and started flipping through the channels—but the screen stayed blank. "What's up with this thing?" he shouted out. Sabretooth walked by, throwing an empty milk carton against the wall, and Mastermind stood in the corner, seeming as if he was trying to stay away from it all.

"Sorry it took so long," Gambit said with a slight smile. "Things were hectic for all of us. Ole Piotr couldn't make it—said he wasn't feeling all that great because of some magnet thing. So what's on the agenda?"

"What's all that noise?" Lance asked as he walked down the stairs, fully suited and cleaning his ear with a Q-tip. "Oh great," he sighed, rolling his eyes and throwing the swab on the floor. Pietro squeezed his eyes shut; all the noise was bombarding him, causing so much pressure in his ears…

Magneto turned to Gambit. "We'll find out as soon as I see what information the Brotherhood has gathered." Turning to Pietro, he said, "So what have you figured out so far?"

Pietro looked at his father's face, not quite making out the words he was saying. "What?" Magneto repeated himself, but still he heard only muffled noises. Looking around at all the ruckus, he realized that he didn't hear any detailed noise, and his head started throbbing, a piercing pain that felt like someone had stuck a dagger straight through his skull—and kept doing so repeatedly. Pietro shook his head when his vision started getting blurry, then he suddenly fell to the floor, clutching his skull. People crowded around him, unsure of what was going on, and even he was unsure, but he felt his memory slipping away along with his consciousness…

Mastermind stepped forth, pushing a few people aside. Magneto demanded, "What's going on? What's wrong with him?"

The quiet man narrowed his eyes. "I'm afraid the changes I've made to his memory are reversing, most likely for the same reason our powers aren't working properly." Mastermind looked down at Pietro, who had by that time completely passed out.

Magneto's eyes narrowed; the last thing he needed was for his son to know what had really happened between he and Mneme. "I thought you had changed his memory!"

His accomplice swallowed nervously; all eyes were on him, waiting for an explanation. "I didn't change anything but what he believed to be the purpose for why he spent time with that girl—" He stopped abruptly, losing his voice from the angered look on Magneto's face. "It was more of a veil on his memory, if anything…"

Grinding his teeth, Magneto clenched his fists furiously. "Are you saying that he's going to remember everything about Mneme—?!"

Pietro blinked his eyes open, his mind hazy but coming back at the mention of that name. "Where is she?" he asked groggily. No one answered, not sure of what he remembered of her or how he remembered her… "I had a horrible dream…" he thought aloud, sitting up and holding his aching head. "Mneme was all bloody on the snow, and you did it." Pietro looked up at his father, trying to get his eyes to focus clearly. "And you were all there too. And before that Piotr was beating me up, and there was an old couple who helped me. And when I went to go help Mneme, she wasn't moving. And then I got really mad, and then I tried to beat you up, and then—" Pietro stopped and looked around at everyone, as if the thought of all that happening was absurd. "Well, the dream ended there, but none of you would ever do that!" he said with a laugh. He stood himself up, Lance grabbing his arm to keep him steady, and he walked to the door.

"Yeah…" Lance replied unsurely. "You must've hit your head pretty hard…ha, ha… " He rubbed the back of his neck with an eyebrow raised, looking at the others for some support, but they stayed silent.

"Well, I've gotta go let Mneme know that I'm okay after hitting my head," he said, waving goodbye to everybody. "I'm sure she'll find my dream very unbelievable." And with that he opened the door and sped off—or, he tried to. By the time he usually took about fifty strides, he had only taken about five. Feeling extremely slow, Pietro looked down at his feet, and realized that he was moving rather sluggishly. Of course, he was going quite fast compared to any normal person, but almost slow motion compared to his usually self. In fact, he hadn't even left the walkway in the yard yet. "What's going on?!" he yelled out in disbelief, stopping in his tracks. "What's wrong with me?" he asked the others, who were looking at him from inside the house.

Once everyone was sitting comfortably in a chair or on the couch in the living room—or in a chair that had been dragged from the dining table—Magneto started his speech on how the X-Men were most likely behind all that was going wrong and how they were going to be stopped.

* * *

It was about half an hour later, and Roland could sense a change in the air. It was certainly more pure, and if he wasn't mistaken, there was a faint light up ahead. Feeling rejuvenated and certainly more confident, he felt his heart race as they reached the end of the tunnel. Clambering upwards, they breached the surface and climbed onto the solid ground. With the feeling of flat land underneath their feet instead of a sloping tunnel, their goals seemed much more achievable. Now above ground, Roland felt more assured that Iris would be alright. He rested her on the springy grassy ground, and she looked exceptionally beautiful in the sunlight. Being the first time in the sun, Roland concentrated on keeping this moment sacred, and he tried to soak in every detail—like how the sun cast a warm glow on Iris's skin even in unconsciousness; and even though the plants all around seemed healthy the shade, of green that her hair was outdid any color that he had ever seen or was probably ever going to see.

Mneme put X-23 on the ground and looked around at the terrain; although it was flat, there was much low vegetation for as far as the eye could see, and it was very thick. They were lucky to have arrived in a clearing, but they weren't safe from harm yet. The threat of HYDRA still weighed heavily upon them, along with native wild animals. They now needed to figure out how to get to the Xavier Institute, and she was sure after a little scouting she would figure out where they were. She floated over to Roland, who was crouched over Iris. "Are you quite finished?" she asked him with a sly smile. He made it only too obvious of what he thought of Iris, and the way he jumped up from pure embarrassment could only result in laughter. He furrowed his brow at a chuckling Mneme, but she soon went on, "We've got to keep moving or HYDRA will catch up to us. I'm not sure if they got past my barrier point, but even if they didn't troops are sure to be sent after us. I'll find a good shelter, and you can take first watch while I scope out the area. Once I figure out where we are, I'll come back and take the night watch." And with that they started their search for shelter…which was going to be difficult to find of such a landscape.

* * *

Neeka wiped the sweat from her brow as she and her troops moved onward in the tunnel. After blowing away the pile of rocks the Mutants had set up—which they did with a rocket launcher—about half her squad was crushed when more rocks fell down after she and the surviving half of the troops had passed. Of course, things weren't going to be easy, but when she caught those escapees, she was going to make them pay…


	27. Chapter TwentySeven

_Reviews are appreciated! =]_

_I think I'll only be updating about every four weeks._

_=[ Sorry that I have to make you wait so long._

_I wish I could produce a full chapter in two weeks, but ideas aren't coming to me very easily._

_This chapter kinda sucks. Okay, it really sucks. It's boring. I'm sorry._

_Try to enjoy it!_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution, _any of its characters, or _Death Adder_._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris because I made them up._**

**Chapter Twenty-Seven**

Roland woke up to a very hard knock on the head, and lifted his head and looked around angrily, only to see Mneme standing over him with a branch raised in her hands. At first his eyes widened, but then they narrowed, demanding a reasonable explanation for why she hit him. "Get your arms from around my daughter, OR SO HELP ME, I will—" His eyes widened from her words, and he tuned the rest out as he looked to see if was she was saying was true—and, indeed, his arms were wrapped around Iris's waist. He waited a few more moments for the awkward feeling to settle in, but it never came. He was so amazed that being with her like that felt so natural…until Mneme started hitting him on the head again. Pulled back to his senses, he jumped up and backed away from them, holding his hands up in submission. Mneme tilted her head up and looked at him through narrow eyes threateningly as she tossed the stick aside.

The sky was just turning a golden color, so Roland looked around for X-23. Seeing his confused look, Mneme answered him.

"She woke up in the middle of the night. Her bones still hurt, but she wanted to leave," she explained. "I let her go; she'll create a good distraction if HYDRA goes after her, or even if they just split up to look for us we'll have a better chance of being undetected." Mneme could see in Roland's eyes that he thought it sounded like she was using X-23. "I trust her survival skills," she assured. "She has no fear; HYDRA will have a hard time trying to capture her."

A yawn made them turn their heads toward Iris, who was just waking up. Her sleepy eyes looked around, and it took her a few seconds for her to realize that she was no longer in the HYDRA headquarters. Slightly alarmed, she jumped up and looked at Mneme, waiting for some sort of reassurance.

She started drawing an outline of the United States in the sand with a stick. "We're around here," Mneme told her and Roland, pointing somewhere in the Midwest. "Our best bet for getting back to Bayville is to just run straight East across the States. That will take us to New York, and we'll get the X-Men's help for finding you guys a safe place to stay. I'd have Iris use the wind to take us there, or even have her convert energy to make a wormhole, but the wind would attract too much attention and I don't think your powers are developed enough for the latter. One wrong move, and you two would be killed, crushed by the boundless pressure created by a collapsing wormhole.

"The plan is that today we'll travel continuously, without stopping to eat or sleep, the same for tonight. When morning comes, we'll find shelter and you two will sleep for a few hours while I find you something to eat and stand guard. Then we'll continue traveling during nightfall, the next day, and the next night, then sleep the day after that. We'll keep repeating those steps until we reach Bayville."

* * *

Storm walked over to the front door, not feeling so well. The doorbell had just rung, so she answered it. To her surprise, it was Magneto. Seeing that she had no words to say, he spoke, "I would like to speak to Charles." Ororo nodded, walking away to go get him. When she came back, she was pushing Xavier's wheelchair.

"Ah, Erik. How have you been?" he asked politely. "I daresay it's been a while since I last spoke to you." Xavier offered for him to come in, and they sat at the dining table, dismissing Ororo from the room. "I take it you're here for the odd mishaps with the Earth's magnetic fields."

Magneto narrowed his eyes, his suspicions that the X-Men were behind it growing. "So you also know the cause of it," he stated. Xavier nodded behind his clasped hands. Pietro had tried to convince him that the X-Men would never do such a thing before he had left, but Magneto wouldn't stand for such a naïve outlook so he decided that by visiting the X-Men and getting the proof himself, Pietro would realize what scum the X-Men really were. _His mind will no longer be poisoned by that Mneme's charm_, he thought to himself. "Of course; what better way to flatten your enemy than to ruin the use of his powers? You probably didn't suspect that it would effect everyone's powers, did you?" Magneto said, his voice very cool and businesslike.

Xavier raised an eyebrow and looked taken aback. "Surely you don't think that _I_ have anything to do with it?" he asked in disbelief. Magneto's eyes narrowed, clearly showing his accusation. "Erik, I can assure you that I am just as innocent as you are."

Magneto looked at him challengingly. "Do you expect me to believe you?" He ignored whatever Xavier said, stood up, leaning over the table, and grabbed him by the collar. "If it wasn't you or me, than who was it?!" he demanded, clearly showing that he didn't think anyone other than Xavier was capable of such a catastrophe.

Surprisingly, Xavier stayed very calm. "If I knew, I would tell you," he said composedly, "but I don't."

Angrily, Magneto pushed him back into his wheelchair and stormed out of the dining room, his thoughts of Xavier behind it all still brewing.

Storm watched as Magneto slammed the front door behind him, then went to go see if Xavier was alright. "What happened?" she asked once inside the dining room.

"He thinks we caused all of this," Xavier explained. "I'm afraid he won't believe otherwise, which could end up in something very violent."

* * *

Iris looked across the vast canyon, not quite sure how to make for a safe passage. An ice bridge would melt in the hot sun, and her powers weren't quite strong enough to lift up enough rock from the bottom to make a bridge. She looked around for any plant life, but they had been traveling on desert flatland for a while…. Using her mind, she gathered together the energy from the wind. When she had enough, she forced it at Roland. His eyes grew wide the split second it took to reach him, and then he was sent flying across the gorge. Mneme looked after him with amusement, chuckling to herself as he fell to the ground headfirst and tumbled like a rag doll. "I can tell you put a lot of consideration into how to get him across safely," she said sarcastically, Iris's face very red with embarrassment, her expression apologetic. Mneme floated across easily, hardly needing a boost from Iris, and clapped Roland on the back when she arrived on the other side. Iris looked after them a little helplessly, but still shot herself across the same way, a little less enthusiastic. The energy hit her from behind, feeling like it was shot out of a cannon. Her eyes were shut tightly as she curled into a little ball in midair, full of fear, not daring to look down into the canyon. Mneme grinned out how much Iris had already learned about her power, but her smile faded as she studied the acceleration rate of her descent. She gasped and her stomach lurched. "She's not going to make it—she didn't use enough force to send herself across!" Roland looked at her with disbelief, but one glance at Iris confirmed Mneme's theory. In a flash he was gone from Mneme's side, and he dived after Iris just as she disappeared from view. Mneme peered over the lip of the canyon. "Iris!" she called out, her voice echoing. Iris opened her eyes at the sound of her name, only to realize that she was falling—straight down. Roland was above her, his arms outstretched toward her, but she was too scared to move. His aerodynamic dive made it easier for him to cut through the air than Iris's scrunched up figure, so he was quickly at the same level. He grabbed her in his arms, holding her tightly to his chest. Mneme watched as they fell faster and faster, soon just a little dot in her vision. She could see a purple glowing sphere around them; clearly Iris had cast a forcefield around them. Iris looked around when they fell into the river, dissolving the forcefield. Roland, swimming a natural thing for him, took Iris's hand and started traveling against the current, his body waving like a streamer just as a swimming alligator's did. Mneme looked on, feeling almost as if all hope was lost, but suddenly the river started swelling in one spot—no, it was getting…closer? She jumped up and looked at the two Mutants sitting atop the spout of water being forced up from the river. Iris and Roland jumped down and the water fell back into the river below, and so they all took deep breaths of relief and continued on their journey.

* * *

Rogue sat on the top porch step, not feeling much affected by the situation. She didn't see what the big deal was—so what if everyone was going to die? It's wasn't like anything important was going to be lost; for the whole time life had been on Earth, things should've been a lot more advanced in her eyes. Instead, the whole planet was polluted and people fought over stupid things, starting wars over nothing and trying to conquer the world single handedly. Everything was divided by countries, races, religion…. Why wouldn't Humans just recognize the planet as a single united force? Things would be so much stronger that way. _We all deserve to die if we're this stupid,_ she thought to herself. _Good riddance…_

"Well, well, well, look who's reminiscing on the soon-to-be-forgotten," a familiar Cajun voice sounded. Rogue looked up with a jolt, only to see Gambit sitting next to her.

"Remy? What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised. She had been so deep in thought that she hadn't even realized him come up.

He took a swig from a whiskey bottle. "The place was deserted, so I decided I would take a few for the road. I picked you up one, if you'd like…" He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a bottle identical to his, then tossed it to her. She wasn't expecting it, so she almost dropped it, catching it right before it hit the next stair.

She sighed, holding the bottle close to her and looking at her feet; she was glad Remy showed up—she really needed something to give her a bit of comfort. "What did you mean, 'soon-to-be-forgotten'?" she asked, screwing off the top of the bottle.

Remy sat back on one hand, stretching his legs down over a few steps. "As far as Magneto is concerned, the whole world is going to come to end. Apparently it's all the X-Men's fault, but frankly I don't care. I got no powers, no one's got any authority or sanity, I might as well use this as an opportunity to live life to the fullest." Rogue raised an eyebrow, but she could see where he was coming from. "I mean, why not if we're all going to die anyway?"

With a grin, Rogue nodded in agreement, swirling the golden liquid around in its bottle. "You've got a point." There was a moment's silence. Where was a good place to hang out if the whole city was disrupted and panicking?

"Hmm…"

"Wanna go chill at the beach?" she asked with a shrug.

"Good idea."

It didn't take that long to get to the beach. With all the cars stopped and people giving up on their daily doings to panic and freak out, there wasn't much traffic. Once at the beach, they realized that the tide was unusually low. Of course, they were just there as agreeing acquaintances, possibly friends, nothing more, so they just sat there and watched the hot sun sparkle on the waves, drinking whiskey and not really caring what happened to the world. "So…why does Magneto think the world is going to end?" Rogue asked.

"He says without the magnetic fields the way they were, it's possible the atmosphere is going to expand and dissipate. When that happens the sun's harmful rays can get through, blah-blah-blah, we won't be able to breathe, plants dying, you know, the whole doomsday lecture."

"Oh." Rogue honestly didn't really see what the magnetic fields of the Earth had to do with any of that stuff (until recently she hadn't even known that the Earth had magnetic fields), but Magneto knew more about that stuff than anyone else, so she was going to have to take his word. After that, their conversation drifted off into an array of subjects that kept them laughing and oblivious to everything around them, so oblivious that they thought the ground violently trembling had something to do with drinking too much.

Back at the mansion, Kitty paused when she felt the floor vibrating. Above her, the chandelier swayed, and the shaking got worse. Expecting the worst, she assumed that an earthquake was starting and ran down to Beast's lab. All the professors were there, the condition of everything weighing heavily on their shoulders, so their faces were extremely grim with depression. With the lab being underground and extremely secure, no one in the lab felt even the slightest tremor. "Upstairs—everything's, like, shaking and stuff—I think it's an earthquake!" Kitty sputtered, the words tumbling over each other.

"An earthquake?" Ororo asked, her voice filled with concern.

"It's probably the aftereffects of a distant one," Beast said, knowing that if an earthquake was to happen, the city would already be in ruins. "Of course, that's probably even worse…" he added.

Kitty looked at him with concern. "Worse…?"

At that moment, Kurt's voice sounded from the doorway. "How vould that be vorse?" Clearly he had been eavesdropping on their conversation.

"If the earthquake happened on the ocean floor," Hank explained, "a tsunami more than likely has been created by the shifting tectonic plates." Kitty and Kurt exchanged nervous glances.

Ororo thought for a moment. "We should probably get everyone down here—the lab is sealed up, plus it's underground. I thing this would be the safest place for us to stay until we're sure there's not going to be any danger."

"That's a good idea," Xavier agreed. "Kitty, Kurt, you two can round up the others and tell them to get down here." The two students nodded and ran off to find their friends.

* * *

Roland and Iris were losing their breath as they trekked onward. Through a very thick forest they had been traveling through, leaping over fallen logs and dodging branches, not to mention running away from animals whose minds were warped from the magnetic field change. Birds, salmon, buffalos, and butterflies—no migrating animal knew which way to head, and carnivores were driven by an undying neutral hungry, attacking anything fleshy and moving. Through the trees they could barely see the sun, but as far as they could tell it had hardly moved—and not in the direction it had been going earlier. Roland pointed up to the sun, wanting Mneme to give an explanation. She furrowed her brow, trying to think of something related to the magnetic fields. "I think—I think the difference in the fields has made the tilt of the Earth different, and spin at a different speed. Don't worry; I know we're still heading in the right direction. A little change of where the sun is in the sky won't slow us down." Iris gave an uncertain glance at Roland, but they continued on anyway.

* * *

Magneto was telling everyone that their plans to attack were going to be called off temporarily. Of course, Pietro wasn't included in any of this conversation, and he was beginning to wonder where everyone had gone off. He came down from the stairs after searching the upper floor and started walking over to the kitchen, but stopped by the doorway to get an idea of what the group was discussing—and why it was without him.

"They'll be expecting a head-on battle now that they know that we're aware of who caused all this," Magneto was saying. Pietro narrowed his eyes and started listening more intently, guessing that he was talking about the X-Men. "What we'll do is weaken their defenses, and this is where Pyro comes in. Since your flamethrowers are not electronic, they still work. Even though you can't manipulate fire anymore, you can still use those, so I want you to burn down that whole institute. Without shelter, their chances are cut down for when we launch the full attack." Pietro held back a gasp of alarm, then ran to the front door.

_I've gotta warn Mneme!_ he told himself. If her powers weren't working, she could easily die in the fire, and if she died…he didn't want to think about it.

* * *

Mneme led the way out of the forest, and as they continued their journey back to Bayville, they came upon a city in ruins. It was devastating, and the cause of it was still there. Iris's hair was whipped around from such strong winds, and panic was coursing through her just as well as all the citizens. The trio looked up at the giant tornado that stretched across the sky, destroying all houses and buildings surrounding it. "We'll have to go around," Mneme stated, shaking her head as she realized how much time this would cost them. She and Roland started heading South (or what used to be South), but Iris couldn't just leave those poor people! Mneme looked back at her, knowing what was running through her mind. "We can't risk it, Iris," she told her. "This would draw too much attention, and Humans don't care if you help them, no matter what you do. People will just get angry at you and it will leave a trail of evidence behind for HYDRA to follow," she pointed out, but Iris couldn't bear to see the people in such a condition…. She looked at the tornado, ripping up the city's buildings and taking people's lives. Iris flexed her fingers, not quite sure how to get rid of the tornado. A strong wind would be able to move it somewhere else, but it could cause more damage. Of course, she could always take control of the tornado itself and slow down those winds, but it would much too hard—from a distance.

She broke off from the group and started running over rubble to get closer. Although her mother called after her, Iris kept running on. Dodging a few flying scrap sheets of metal and car pieces, she was able to get close enough. Focusing all her strength, she tried to get a grip on the winds, but nature's forces were far stronger than her own. She looked down and saw that she was being pulled across the ground, so she made the dirt harden into rock around her ankles. Iris held her breath and started focusing her energy even more, and Roland arriving next to her with a thumbs-up gave her a little more confidence in herself. Furrowing her brow determinedly, she finally felt her powers click, grabbing hold of the tornado's winds. Amazed that she was able to do so while knowing so little about her power, Mneme's eyebrows raised at her capability as the tornado started slowing, progressively becoming thinner and shorter until it was a slight swirl spinning tiny blades of grass around. It died down, and Iris grinned at Roland and Mneme. Her mother smiled back at her, shaking her head.

* * *

All the X-Men sat anxiously in the lab, the door sealed very tightly. They were wondering what was going on with the new Mutants back on the island where they were training…. It was probably much worse than they had it in the city. _They'd be safe if I hadn't been so hard on them and sent them back for more training_, Xavier thought guiltily. Rogue was also missing, no one knowing where she could have gone. He looked over at Logan, who was finally able to sit up on his own. It was clear by the look on his face that he was still in pain, but any more of Hank's homemade painkillers and he'd probably go into a coma or something like that. Xavier saw that Hank and Ororo were depressed by their current situation, not able to help or stop anything that was to come. In truth, he felt the same way. The students looked miserable and scared, not knowing what was in store for the future—if there was a future. For all anyone knew, it was the end of everything…. Xavier shook his head in shame and stress, a mix of emotions coursing through him. Was everything he had achieved for Mutants to live peacefully going to be lost?

Everyone's heads turned at the sound of someone knocking very hard on the front door. They looked at each other concernedly, knowing that anyone who would come knocking at this time would be angry Humans thinking that the X-Men were behind it all—either that or angry Magneto followers thinking that the X-Men were behind it all. Xavier furrowed his brow when the banging stopped, wondering where they could have gone. "Who do you think it was?" Kitty asked him.

"I'm not sure, but it didn't sound like an angry mob…" Xavier thought for a moment. There was only one person knocking, and if it were a mob there would be multiple people banging on the walls and tearing up the door—probably not knocking at all and just barging in to destroy everything.

"It could be Magneto trying to lure us out," Hank suggested.

They jumped at the sound of someone pounding on metal, and they immediately found out that it was the door to the lab. The students looked at each other nervously, feeling very vulnerable and weak at the moment. "Hello? HELLO?!" a muffled voice sounded from the other side.

Jean raised an eyebrow. "Is that Pietro?" she whispered.

"He must be the one trying to lure us out," Scott assumed quietly.

There was silence for a few moments as he waited on the other side. "I guess no one's home…" he said to himself. "I could've sworn I heard voices. I guess Mneme took them somewhere safer and forgot about me…"

"Mneme?" Kurt asked loudly in disbelief, looking at Evan for an explanation, but he just shrugged. The others glared at him for being so loud. "Something's wrong—he doesn't know about Mneme!"

"Hey! Is somebody in there?" Pietro asked from the other side, knocking softly against the door. Xavier sighed; their cover was blown, so what was the point of making him wait out there when they weren't even sure he was on Magneto's side at all? He wheeled over to the door and unlocked the tight seal, twisting the bar handle around until it was no longer keeping the door sealed. He pushed it open to see Pietro standing there with a big grin on his face—as if he was actually happy to see them all. "Boy am I glad to see you guys!" he exclaimed, walking past Xavier and into the middle of the room. "I tried the doorbell, but I guess it's not working because it's electronic," he said with a smile. The X-Men were debating on whether he should be classified as crazy or if he was just playing them for fools with an act. Pietro looked around for Mneme, ignoring the strange looks they were giving him. "So where's Mneme? And what are you guys doing down here?"

"Listen, bub," Logan said gruffly, "if you're gonna play games, you might as well leave before you get yourself into something you wish you hadn't."

Pietro raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"I think he's being totally serious," Kitty said, a look of confusion on her face. Xavier closed and sealed the door again, then wheel over to Pietro.

"Don't you remember that she's dead?"

His face fell, trying to detect any hint of a lie on Xavier's face, but there was none. It was silent for a long while before Pietro found his voice. "What?" he said hoarsely.

Everyone looked at him in astonishment, but it was Ororo who finally come forward and explained what Rogue had seen and what they came upon when they reached Antarctica. When she was finished explaining it all, he shakily walked over to the wall and pressed his forehead against it, trying to figure everything out. He turned around and leaned his back on the metal, sliding down until he was sitting, staring at his hands in shame. "But—but I don't remember any of that. I remember that I was dreaming that I saw her dead, and my dad did it, and I tried to fight him, and then there was Mastermind—and then I woke up." He looked back at everyone desperately. "She can't be dead. Something's not right. I know I wasn't doing it all for Magneto! I know it! I would never do that!"

"Wait—did you say Mastermind was there?" Xavier asked, now starting to put two and two together. "And after that you woke up? Is it possible that he rewrote your memory?" Pietro shrugged. "Of course! Magneto hated Mneme, so he wanted you to think the same. If you knew he had killed her, you'd leave his side and join the X-Men, so he had Mastermind rewrite your memory. And now that his powers don't work, your memory has returned to normal."

"So none of that stuff was true about him betraying Mneme?" Evan asked, not ready to be convinced easily.

"What does it matter?" he said gloomily. "She's dead. There's no way to bring her back. How am I supposed to propose to someone dead?" They looked at him, wondering what he was droning on about. "What? I've got the ring right here," he said, digging into his pocket. He pulled out a beautiful ring that had a good-sized jewel held in place by two swirls that made a heart when looked at from above. The rest of the band, which was about half a centimeter wide, had a heart tessellation all the way around. The girls' eyes grew wide with amazement at its beauty and such a sweet thought.

"Oh, that's so gorgeous!" Storm exclaimed, wiping a tear from her eye; young love was so charming.

"Yeah, but vhy is it silver? And that's not even a diamond! How vere you going to propose vith that?" he asked challengingly.

Kitty hit him on the head. "Can't you tell that's, like, a black diamond and white gold? It doesn't even look like silver!" she scolded, but almost immediately returned her attention to the ring.

Scott scoffed. "Well, don't encourage him. There's no way he could've gotten that without stealing it."

"Scott!" Jean said through gritted teeth, disappointed by his rudeness.

"I did steal it…in a way." Pietro said, looking at it sadly, knowing he would never give it to the girl he loved. Xavier was tempted to tell him about the ghost of Mneme, but that was sort of a hard thing to believe—not even his own colleagues and students were quite able to believe him without a little skepticism. "It was my mother's. Magneto made it for her with his powers and gave it to her. He lost control a little while later, and she ran away—but still wore it. When she died giving birth to Wanda and me…my dad kept the ring and hid it. I knew Mneme hates gold and thinks diamonds are ugly, so I took it because it's the right materials for an engagement ring, and the right colors for her. "But she's dead. Now she can never wear it—she can't even look at it…"

Evan raised an eyebrow at the girls (including his aunt), who were sniffling at such a sad story, touched by how much thought he had put into a ring for Mneme. _How can they feel sorry for him?_ Evan asked himself, still not trusting the rat. But even so, Pietro's hurt expression still made him feel just a bit sorry for him—just a bit. And perhaps he was sincerely sorry that she was gone, judging by how hard he was holding back the tears. Before Evan would actually start feeling really bad for him, he demanded, "Why'd you come here, anyway?"

Pietro looked up at him with big, sad eyes, almost like he was ready to give up on life. "I came here to tell you what my father was planning. So I ran down here. When no one answered, I came in to see if you had left, and I came down here because I heard voices." He took a deep breath, not really feeling like talking to anyone, but still he continued, "Pyro is going to burn your house down so you won't have any shelter and you'll be more vulnerable for when Magneto orders the attack. There's nothing you can do to stop Pyro; I just wanted you all to get somewhere safe since your powers aren't working. Neither are ours, but still…. Anyway, I'm guessing that it's safe and locked up tight in here, so you'll be fine." Standing up, he took one last look at the ring and slipped it back in his pocket with a sigh. "I guess I'll be going now." He walked over to the door, and though everyone wanted to say something comforting, nothing came to mind. Pietro reached for the lever to unlock the door, but when he grabbed it to turn, he drew his hand back. "It's warm." He looked back at Hank, who had already suspected the same.

"I'm guessing that Pyro has already started the fire," he said. "We'll be safe in here; the fire won't be able to get the walls or floor hot enough to hurt anyone, and as long as the door stayed locked our oxygen won't get used up by it."

The students gave each other grim looks, not feeling reassured. Pietro sat down in the corner, fumbling with the ring, wanting to leave since there was no Mneme, but having no choice but to stay.


	28. Chapter TwentyEight

_Happy Valentine's Day!_

_Ugh. Anyway, I read some other OC stories, and mine totally sucks compared to theirs!_

_It's sickening. Even the ones I thought really sucked had more good reviews than me._

_So why am I telling you this? Because my birthday is the sixteenth, and for my birthday I'd like you to give a review._

_Positive or negative, I don't care. I just want some reviews! **PWEASE!!!!**_

_PLEEEEAAASE! PLEASE? For me...?_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution, _any of its characters, or _Death Adder_._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris and Neeka because I made them up._**

**Chapter Twenty-Eight**

Mneme sat up high on the ledge above the cave where Roland and Iris were getting some well-earned sleep. It was hard to tell how long they had been traveling, but Mneme knew this land and could tell that Bayville was only a day's worth of traveling away. Even though she could sense that HYDRA was trailing them, no sense of worry for Iris was in her, and this somewhat disturbed her. Although Iris had come a long way from being a helpless baby, she was nowhere near skilled enough to fight off a whole group of HYDRA members. Or was she? The way she had forced that tornado into a slight wind was very skillful, and she could probably start it back up just as easily. Also the fact that the change in the magnetic fields didn't affect her was interesting; Mneme had explained that the reason the metal-based Mutants were in pain was because of that, but she hadn't told them her theory: If the magnetic fields were to change, it would scramble most Mutants' powers to the point of uselessness…. Mneme hadn't told them because Iris's powers were working fine. Perhaps her theory was wrong, perhaps Iris's powers made her immune to it, or perhaps her powers were too strong even for a drastic change such as that—the other Mutants in the Fighting Chamber weren't able to use their powers, after all…

She shook her head, brushing the thought aside. It didn't matter since none of HYDRA's tracking devices worked, let alone their weapons. Mneme knew that Neeka was a very desperate person and would go through drastic measures to get to Iris and Roland, but she stayed seated and squinted against the sunrise, wondering about Pietro. Mneme had struggled to find Iris to bring her back to Pietro for safety, but Iris was almost a teenager and was skilled enough to probably fend for herself. Even if she wasn't, Roland certainly was very skilled and protective of her. She remembered when Iris had asked if everyone turned into ghosts after death, but only those scared of what is to come or those with a determination to stay transform into ghosts. In Mneme's case, her purpose was lost; now that Iris was older and had Roland, she didn't need Pietro to watch over her, so Mneme wasn't going to be needed to persuade him to take care of a small infant. She sighed, feeling the pressure of her worries disappear with her misty figure in the wind.

Iris yawned and stretched as the sunlight crept through the front of the cave. She blinked against the bright sun, looking affectionately down at Roland, who was still sleeping soundly. There was a slight pause as she came to her senses and jumped back, her face beat red. She held her hands behind her back embarrassedly and walked outside, looking for Mneme, but she was nowhere in sight. Roland touched her shoulder, and she started feeling a light bubbly feeling inside. He spun her around and pointed to the Western horizon. There were very tiny silhouettes coming slowly closer; it could've been anyone, or it could've been HYDRA. Either way, the two weren't going to take any chances, so they continued toward the city. It wasn't long before they were among the sad and confused citizens, much to busy with their own survival to even glance at the misfits. Without Mneme, they had no idea which way the institute was, and absolutely no way of asking. Iris bit her lip and looked around, wondering how long it was going to take them to find it. Suddenly she spotted a thick smoke cloud making its way higher into the sky. Instantly her lawful instincts sent her towards it, wanting to help anyone in danger, but Roland's protective instincts were kicking in, grabbing a tight hold of her wrist, forbidding Iris to put herself in harm's way. She looked at him angrily with her big dark glittering eyes and yanked her arm out of his grasp. She was a little disappointed that he would rather stand by and do nothing than help innocent people from a fire. Roland's tail swished with aggravation, but knew there was no stopping her, so he followed her down the street and into a deserted lane. For some reason she had stopped, and her determined look wasn't very reassuring.

As soon as Iris lifted her hands, a tall pillar rose beneath them, jutting out of the alleyway and stopping short, sending them up into the air. Roland's eyes grew large as they passed the peak of a cement building. At about five feet above the roof, they started descending. Iris landed quite gracefully on her toes, crouching low with her arms out for stability, while Roland caught onto the edge of the roof and hauled himself over in a back flip, off in a sprint as soon as his feet touched the surface. Iris wasn't far behind him, using the wind to propel herself as they jumped from building to building, gradually getting closer to the fire. From up that high, they could see that it was definitely a mansion, with a gated property and even a nice driveway. They were nearing the last building that would be of use to them, so as they jumped to the ground, Iris summoned a wind strong enough to carry them to their destination. Roland was a little nervous flying over a bunch of spiky pine trees, but Iris was focused and calm, which gave him some hope. He looked at her admiringly and also affectionately, which gave him some sort of burning sensation in his gut. Of course, the feeling was over in a few seconds when they arrived at the gates. While he recovered from the lightheadedness, Iris pushed the gates open.

_Xavier Institute? "For Gifted Youngsters"…_ Iris read on the plaque. So that meant the X-Men were possibly in trouble—her heart raced at the thought of being able to meet them. She ran closer to the mansion and summoned thousands of gallons of water, putting out the fire with ease, although there wasn't much left of the house…. The top half was completely ash and gone, and the bottom was charred and frail. The smell of burning fabric and wood lingered in the air as Roland caught up to her and stopped her from entering. He signaled to the side of the house, and Iris agreed that they should check for enemies first. They took separate ways, sneaking around the sides of the mansion until they met up at the back. Neither of them caught anyone, but Roland could see someone behind the cold tombstone a little ways further than the pool. He pointed over to it, and Iris nodded before levitating herself over the pool while he dove into the water.

* * *

The X-Men and Pietro looked at each other when the noise of roaring fires went down. Kitty reached for the lever that looked like a helm to unseal and unlock the door. "Don't!" Hank warned. She stopped, everyone looking at him for explanation. "That could've been the tsunami that put out the fire: If you unseal that door, the pressure from the water could be too high and burst through the door, drowning us all.

"Then how will we know when it's safe to go out?" Scott asked.

"We're just going to have to wait it out…" Xavier said gloomily.

* * *

Pyro jumped at the sound of a small splash from behind him. Peeking over the tombstone he had run behind when he saw that his fire was being put out, there was nothing in sight. With a sigh of relief he turned back around and sank to the ground, only to jump back up at the sight of a preteen green-haired girl in a black textured bodysuit. She was glaring at him extremely angrily. With a small yelp, Pyro jumped to his feet and tried to make a run for it, but a reptilian kid was standing in his way, water droplets. The redhead raised an eyebrow. "What the hell are you supposed to be?" he laughed in his Australian accent. Iris was a little taken aback by his choice of words, but Roland merely narrowed his eyes. Iris watched as he through the pyromaniac into the pool. Her body shuddered as she tried to suppress her silent laughter. She turned around while the villain ran sopping wet back to the front gates, but her smile faded when she realized that the grave belonged to her adoptive mother. Her fingertips tingled, urging her to uncover the coffin and take a look at her in her peaceful slumber. Now that even the ghost was gone, she had no mother…and she longed for her presence again.

Roland looked at her focused, longing expression. Gently he took her hand, which was so much colder than hers. Her sad eyes looked deep into his, but she still allowed him to pull her into the ruined house. Everything was ash inside; the only things left in tact were two metal doors. They opened the one on the right, but there were two more doors, so they closed it and checked to see if the other one was any simpler. Indeed it was, and inside the lab a group of people was staring at them curiously, but Iris recognized every single one of them. She smiled at each one of them, showing that she wasn't hostile at all, but her gaze stopped on one person in particular, a boy that had abandoned her in the arctic, who she had once recognized as her father, but he didn't even notice her. He sat, fiddling with a ring about an inch from his face, lost in his own little world.

A voice caught her attention, "It's nice to see you again, Iris." The students gasped at the fact that she was so much older looking. Xavier continued, "Would you mind introducing us to your friend?" She pursed her lips and pointed at her throat, indicating that she had no voice. "I see…"

"HYDRA definitely did that to her," Logan said gruffly.

"Have you by any chance seen Rogue?" Ororo asked hopefully, but Iris merely shook her head.

Hank looked confused. "Are you the one who put the fire out?" he asked. Iris nodded. "But how? Oh, sorry, I know you can't answer that. But that certainly is strange; all our powers are useless. Her eyes drifted back over to Pietro, who was looking at her with bewilderment. She furrowed her brow and stuck her nose up in the air, showing that she didn't tolerate people like him.

"Hey!" Kurt said loudly, jumping nearly inches from her face. She leaned back to get him into focus. "If you could put the fire out, can't you make the tsunami stop?" Iris shrugged.

"She probably can—I mean, she probably escaped from HYDRA, so she must be pretty skilled," Scott pointed out. He and the other boys seemed fascinated by how different she was—one day a drooling baby, the next a sophisticated beautiful preteen.

"What's that thing on your face?" Kitty asked Roland.

"Do you actually have full control of that tail?" Jean inquired, the two girls crowding around him. They seemed to be fascinated by how different he was.

"Wow, that's so cool!" Kitty shrieked.

Kurt tried to push Roland aside, but his feet stayed planted firmly where they were, so he resided to just standing between him and Kitty. "I'm vay veirder than him!" he argued.

"Yeah, Kurt, sure you are, now move."

The two backed away from the crowding kids, and Iris noticed the chalkboard behind them. Picking up a piece of chalk, she started writing, _We can go find Rogue for you._

"You can't—it's much to dangerous with the possibility of a tsunami."

_I can stop the tsunami, too._

Hank and Ororo looked at Xavier worriedly. It could end up a complete miracle, or it could end up in complete disaster… "They're allowed to make their own decisions: They're not part of the X-Men, so I have no control over what they do." Roland grinned behind his air modifier; he liked the way the Professor thought. Iris waved goodbye at them all while they made their way to the door, but Jean pulled her aside for a moment.

"Check by the beach," she whispered. "It used to be her and Remy's favorite place to hang out after a night out." And with that the duo was off to the shore.

Pietro huffed. "Good riddance." The others looked at him, waiting for an explanation. "What? So what if they put out the fire? It was going to happen anyway! They're probably not even going to find Rogue!"

Even scoffed. "You're just upset that she's mad that you left her stranded out in the snow!"

"Not to mention that it was while she was a baby," Jean added.

"What did you, like, expect?"

"Yeah, leaving her out there vas pretty harsh."

"I would've ignored you too."

"But I didn't do that! That wasn't me who did that!" Pietro argued.

"She doesn't know that."

Xavier rubbed his temples, trying to block their pointless quarrelling from his mind, but it was so difficult without his powers…

* * *

Iris and Roland paced up and down the deserted beaches, and eventually they saw two figures sprawled out on the sand. They raced up to them, and saw that they had passed out from drinking. Roland looked at Iris, questioning if either of them were the one, and she pointed to the girl. Iris presumed that the man lying next to her was the Remy mentioned by Jean.

As they leaned over to pick her up, a dark shadow fell across them. Iris spun around, ready to force back any tsunami that nature threw her way, but to her surprise, it was an odd person. He was a Mutant, no doubt, judging by the cape and weird helmet. In fact, she had seen him before in the arctic when Pietro had brought her there to supposedly search for Mneme. Iris looked at him with annoyance; what exactly was he supposed to do without his powers? She relaxed and returned to helping Rogue up. "I thought I might find you here," Magneto stated, ignoring the fact that his presence was unwanted. Roland and Iris stood and looked at him, each of them with one of Rogue's arms around their shoulders. "I saw you earlier using your powers while on your way to the X-Men. I'm sure you weren't expecting the mansion to be on fire, but you took care of that. It seems that the circumstances don't affect your powers in the slightest, probably because you have the ability to manipulate all types of energy and elements." Iris narrowed her eyes at him: She didn't know how he knew that, but she didn't like it. "I'm sure you're aware of how my powers are useless," he continued, "so I'd like you to do me a favor and in return—"

Iris scoffed, picking up Remy with her powers; there wasn't anything that he could offer that would even slightly tempt her to do his evil bidding. They started walking down the beach, leaving Magneto behind.

"I could tell you how to possibly get your mother back," he finished with a hint of triumph in his voice; judging by how Iris stopped in her tracks, his offer had her hooked just he had planned. Magneto could see her shaking, her arms trembling—she was trapped before she even knew what she was going to be required to do. Iris looked at Roland with wide eyes, and he shook his head sternly, trying to warn her that trusting Magneto was a bad idea. She knew it was, but having her mother back… "All you have to do is lead HYDRA to the X-Men and the Brotherhood." Iris turned and looked at him, not sure what to say. It was obvious why he'd want to turn in the X-Men, but why would Magneto want to rat out his allies? She swallowed and slowly nodded, not able to keep eye contact with him. Roland's heart sank; he had thought that Iris had a stronger backbone than that, but he couldn't judge her because he didn't know what it was like to have a loving parent. Even so, he had a bad feeling about the deal she was making: There just had to be a catch… "You can leave Gambit here; I'll bring him back to the Brotherhood hideout." Magneto held out his hand, waiting for a handshake. Iris lowered Remy to the ground and timidly walked forward. She paused before extending her hand to seal the deal, and she looked wearily into Magneto's eyes. His grip crushed her hand with a stone hold, and somehow she knew he was grinning under that shadow.

At that moment, darkness fell over them all, and Iris knew it was the tsunami. She wrenched her hand free and looked at the towering wall of rolling seawater. Roland's eyes widened at such a frightening sight, and all thoughts not pertaining to survival fled from his mind. Using all her focus, Iris took hold of the giant wave and thrust out her hands, trying to push it back. Every muscle in her body tensed up as she strained to calm the water. Her gritted teeth grinded together, trying to muster up enough strength to force the wave back underneath the surface of the ocean, but her energy was diminishing and the wave was building up quickly. Then an idea came to mind: With all her mind focused, she furrowed her brow. Roland and Magneto watched for a few more moments, and the battle didn't seem to be going anywhere, but as time passed it was obvious that the wave was getting smaller. Within a few minutes, the wave was only a couple feet tall, and the two were left to wonder where it went…. Roland rushed up to Iris and caught her before she collapsed from exhaustion, and even though it was apparent she was attempting to stand on her own she was completely drained of all her energy. The small wave that was once a tsunami crashed gently upon their ankles, and Roland put Iris down on the sand to let her recuperate. She smiled thankfully up at him, her face very tired, and hoisted the energy from the sea breeze, making it into her own. Iris stood and smiled her thanks again, this time fully restored and glowing with energy. Above them storm clouds were already forming, and Magneto realized that she had made the wave into clouds, and the wind was carrying it back out to the middle of the ocean. Roland looked at her, admiring her sharp thinking.

The feeling of accomplishment was chased away when Magneto reminded her of their deal. "When they've got all those Mutants, then I'll tell you my theory on how to get your mother back, flesh and bones. Seeing her as a ghost was nice, but I'm sure you don't find it to be much compared to when she was fully alive." There was a pause while Magneto kicked Gambit in the side to wake him up, and Iris frowned, wondering if the deal she made was a bad idea—he seemed to know quite a bit about her… "I don't suppose you know what happened to her…? No, of course not; you were asleep at the time." He gave a short chuckle and started making his way back towards the city, followed by a groggy Remy, who cast one last look behind him before really getting a move on. Roland and Iris turned their heads to see what he was gazing at, and their eyes fell on Rogue, facedown in the dirt. Iris cast him a sideways glance, guessing that he must've dropped her when he went to catch her from collapsing…

After taking the unconscious Rogue back to the X-Men, Iris reassured them that the tsunami was taken care of. The X-Men clapped her on the back and congratulated her, but she didn't feel like she deserved it. Her insides felt cold, and when she glanced at Roland he was looking shamefully at the ground. Kitty, who was naturally good at reading peoples' emotions, spoke up, "What's, like, wrong?"

"Yeah, you look like you just made a deal to turn your friends over to some agency," Scott said jokingly, but his words were so close to correct that it made Iris's heart skip a beat. She tried to swallow, but a lump in her throat prevented her from doing so.

"He's just kidding; we're not accusing you of anything," Jean assured with a friendly smile.

"Yeah, you just took on a whole tsunami," Evan piped up.

"Just think, you just saved a bunch of people from a vatery grave," Kurt reminded. "You're a hero!"

"Yes, and stopping a whole tsunami is no easy feat," Ororo praised. "I'm sure you'll have no problem keeping your title as a hero." Iris looked at her with a distorted expression, not feeling at all like a hero.

Xavier chuckled lowly. "Alright, I'm sure she's glad to have all your support, but she needs her rest." She waved her hands, trying to express that there was really no need, but Xavier insisted. "Even if you're not physically tired, you still need to rest your mind."

"If only you had gotten here a bit sooner, we could offer you a bed," Hank said apologetically. "All we have are a few blankets," he added as he opened up something that was like a safe in the wall, only it didn't have a lock. He pulled out two fleece blankets and two downy comforters, giving one of each to both Roland and Iris. Despite Iris's consistent refusal of needing rest, she took the blankets and followed Roland over to the corner of the room. She folded the comforter to lie down on, remembering the cushy crib that she once had. Roland wasn't familiar with blankets at all, so he tried to copy Iris. Of course, when he was done with his attempt to fold the blanket, it just looked like someone bundled it up and tossed into his arms. Iris silently chuckled and fixed it for him, but he glared at her for even thinking of being happy. Slightly hurt, she lied down and pulled the fleece blanket up to her chin, her back towards Roland's "bed".

The other X-Men looked at them with concern. "Is it just me, or are things not going smoothly?" Logan asked gruffly, but it was obvious how much he cared when he got up and left the room. The others looked at each other, but it was apparent that those two were going to have to work things out themselves…

Roland lay on his side facing the wall, the blanket covering him. In truth, he wasn't tired or cold; he usually only needed three hours of sleep, and the rest of the day he could stay active. But he felt like he needed to do some thinking. For some reason, he felt disappointed in himself, and he guessed it was because for a short time he had actually thought Iris had done the right thing by making the deal with Magneto. It was wrong to do that, and even though he didn't really know the X-Men, he could tell that their motives were more moral than Magneto's. Roland hadn't expected Iris to fall into that, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt like he didn't know her at all. When that thought crossed his mind, he wondered if he was judging too harshly: Everyone had a more desperate side…right? Roland shook his head; it didn't matter whether or not it was her desperate side. Turning anyone into HYDRA would be helping the people he hated most, and he couldn't do that.

Iris furrowed her brow, feeling anger bubbling inside her. She didn't deserve to be shunned! It was just a stupid deal, and once she knew how to get Mneme back, she could put everything back to normal. She glared across the room, looking at Pietro had been sitting before she left, but he was gone now. She imagined him, still sitting silently in the corner, fumbling with the ring. She still felt hatred towards him for betraying her and Mneme. Her heart stopped when she realized something: She was doing the exact same thing by turning in the X-Men—maybe not so much the Brotherhood, since she didn't know them, but if she led HYDRA to them…they would feel just like she had…. Iris then knew that she did deserve to be shunned—probably worse than that. _But I haven't done anything yet…_ she reminded herself. She thought about what her mother would want. A few warm tears fell from the corners of her eyes and fell on the blanket, and she took a deep breath as she made her decision.

* * *

Pietro looked up at the moon. It was full, washing the whole backyard in its blue glow. With one last deep breath, he crawled out of the pit he had been digging since before Iris and Roland had gotten back, and wiped the sweat and dirt off his forehead. Shoving the shovel into the ground, one of the few items that survived the fire, he jumped back down into the pit and looked at Mneme's coffin. He lifted up the top slowly and carefully, the moonlight edging its way across Mneme's body the more he opened it. Pietro smiled down at her expressionless face, looking like it was made of porcelain…. Her features were still perfect even in death, and she looked just like he had remembered her, down to the last strand of shiny turquoise hair. He frowned and pulled a centipede off her collar, then took her hand and pulled the ring out of his pocket. After admiring it after he slipped it onto her ring finger, Pietro paused, noticing something quite different from the last time he had seen her. He looked back at her collar, and he saw that it was her very first collar, the one Magneto used to defeat her. "Wait a minute…" Pietro thought for a moment: If Mneme had almost every power, perhaps…? Of course not, no one's powers worked. But if Iris's did—it was worth a shot…. Pietro clambered out of the ditch and got ready to run back to the lab, but he stopped in his tracks at the sight of at least ten adults making their way towards the stairs down that led to the lab. He squinted at the three silhouettes that stood a ways off from the other men. One of them looked like a women, one a little girl a couple years younger than himself, and the last… "Father?" That couldn't be good…

* * *

The door burst open, waking up the X-Men and making Roland jolt upright. The men stormed in, and that's when Roland realized that they were under attack by HYDRA. He looked to his side to see if Iris was alright, but she wasn't there. His eyes widened. _She didn't…_ he thought in disbelief, realizing that she went and led them there.

One of the men advanced toward Kitty, and she pulled the blanket up over her mouth and scrambled backwards. He was wearing a weird green and black outfit that covered his head, and he reached out for her. Kitty screamed out in pure fear, squeezing her eyes together, knowing she was completely defenseless, but he never grabbed her. "If you touch her, _I vill kill you_," Kurt growled with determination. The man looked at him as if he was joking, and chuckled. Kurt snarled.

"Just get out of the way," the man said, pushing him aside. Kitty's breath caught when he reached for her. Kurt bared his teeth and jumped from the floor, pouncing into the man's side and knocking him to the floor. The elf eared boy ripped off his mask and started beating his face in, and when he tried to push him off Kurt sank his sharp teeth into his arm. Kitty's eyes filled with tears as she watched another man come up and throw Kurt aside, making him hit his head on one of the metal counters.

"Kurt!" she cried out, running to his side. She gripped his hand and turned his head to face her. "Are you okay?"

"Kitty…" he said faintly, but he was already slipping into unconsciousness.

Her heart was pounding, and she tried to get out of the man's grip on her shoulders, but she was no match. "No! Let me go! LET ME GO!" she hollered, but it wasn't long before they struck the back of her neck and she was out cold.

Rogue had a serious headache, and she was furious to what she woke up to. When you're expecting your lover to be next to you on the sand at night and you see that you're in a dark lab with men trying to capture you, it doesn't make you happy. She clenched her fists angrily, and when one of the strangers approached her, he got a strong punch to the face. A few more men came at her, but she had fought off about five HYDRA members before a net was thrown over her. Within seconds the ends were tied and she was stuck.

Roland saw a net being thrown over Hank also since he was throwing people across the room left and right. He ran to help him out, but he easily ripped out of the net himself with a roar. One of the HYDRA members attempted to stab a tranquilizing syringe in him, but Roland kicked him in the gut and swiped the needle. He and Beast fought back to back, but all around them the X-Men were being knocked out and tied up. Jean and Scott were doing pretty well until they got separated, and then it was as if they lost confidence in themselves. They were struggling to grab each other's hands, but Scott was wrestled to the ground and tied up, and Jean had a cloth held over her mouth and passed out from the chloroform. Soon it was only Roland and Hank left standing, and about fifteen of HYDRA's men gathered around them, but soon Beast fell over. Roland glanced down at him and saw a tranquilizer syringe stuck in his arm; he must've gotten it stuck in him while picking up on of the men to throw them. Roland was ready, though. Even though the poison in his claws wasn't being produced anymore because of the magnetic fields, he felt confident that he could fight them off. Suddenly they all stood at ease, and a few of them parted to let someone through.

Pietro didn't know what to do—without his powers he was never going to be able help them…. He gasped when someone grabbed him from behind and threw him. He landed with an "_oof!_" behind Mneme's tombstone. A second later Logan joined him, his back pressed against the stone. "What are you doing here?" Pietro asked.

"I went out earlier and came back a few minutes ago. I was hiding in the woods because I smelled…_them_."

"Who's—?"

"Hush, kid!" Logan whispered urgently. "Do you want to be caught?" Pietro shook his head. "Then follow me," Logan ordered, checking over the top of the tombstone before leading the way into the woods. He crouched down in the underbrush, so Pietro did the same.

"So who is 'them'?" he asked.

"HYDRA…" Logan growled. "They're…" His voice trailed off and his eyes looked distant, like he was recalling something. "They're bad news," he finished grimly.

"What are we going to do?" Pietro asked.

"There's nothing we can do. Now they've got the upper hand, and they know it."

Pietro looked over at Mneme's grave, wanting to run over to it, but it was too risky…

* * *

"It's about time we caught up to you," Neeka said with a grin. "Madame Hydra will be pleased when I bring you back." Roland narrowed his eyes in response, but still kept aware of all movement around him. Then Magneto walked up and stood beside her, Iris on her other side. Roland looked at her with anguish—the girl he had once had feelings for, and it was all a lie. Even though her expression was apologetic, he didn't feel like he could believe that she meant it…he didn't feel like he could trust her ever again.

Magneto cleared his throat. "Do it," he commanded Iris. She looked up at him pleadingly, begging him not to make her. He gave her a sideways glare. "Do it or the deal is off," he hissed. She swallowed and stared at her feet, pulling her hands out from behind her back to reveal another syringe. Roland gritted his teeth and tensed up, not quite ready to fight her. He didn't know why, but the attachment that he had to her was preventing him to feel like he should hurt her. She lifted her head, her eyes glittering behind the shadow, and she lunged forward, her arms tucked in at her sides smartly. Roland dodged her first attempt to stab the needle into him, then he crouched down and tried to kick her legs out from under her, but he hesitated and didn't have the heart to put full force behind the kick, so she simply jumped up to avoid it. She quickly forced her feet down upon his leg, putting a crack down his shin. With a gasp of pain, he pulled back and tried to stand back up, but his shin couldn't hold any weight so he simply collapsed back on the ground. On his back, leaning on his elbows, Roland stared into Iris's eyes, and her black ones stared deeply into his yellow ones. He looked at her, "why?" written all over his face, and she looked at him regretfully. She crouched next to him and put the tranquilizer into his shoulder, tears brimming in her eyes, and she reached out to touch his hand as the liquid drained into his body. Roland jerked away from her, his brow furrowed with anger and betrayal. She looked at him in incredulity because she would have thought that of all people he would understand. When the liquid was fully drained from the syringe, Roland ripped it out of his shoulder and let two of the HYDRA men lift him up by his underarms, knowing that it was over, and grimaced at her pleading look, as if she wanted him to forgive her. He shook his head slightly, his face showing how disappointed he was, and he threw the syringe in front of her, hoping she realized what she had done. It landed at her knees, and Iris let the tears flow freely down her cheeks before burying her face in her hands.


	29. Chapter TwentyNine

_Hey there!_

_Another update._

_It's a little short, but the next one will be better, I promise._

_There's a surprise guest at the end! He or she hasn't been in the whole story, so you might've been wondering where he or she was..._

_Anyway, please enjoy and review!_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution, _any of its characters, or _Death Adder_._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris and Neeka because I made them up._**

**Chapter Twenty-Nine**

The sound of clacking horse hooves and squeaky wagon wheels filled everyone's ears as a cart with tied up Mutants approached. It was clear that they were the Brotherhood and Magneto's henchmen judging by Blob's gigantic form. They were all wrapped up in sacks of gray cloth, so it was hard to tell who was who. Magneto walked over to Neeka, who was making her way over to the seat of the cart, which was located at the front. It sat up high, but it was just a simple board the width of the cart. She put her foot up on the step and started to lift herself up onto the flat wooden bench, but was stopped when Magneto stood in her way. "Alright, hand it over," he commanded her. She scoffed.

"You think you're really going to get it?" she asked, as if it were obvious. Magneto looked taken aback. "Don't act so surprised. You know what the deal was: Give us the whereabouts of all the Mutants you know and help us capture them. You promised forty-two; we only have eighteen—" She was stopped short at the sound of another cart approaching. They both turned to see more Mutants tied up and stacked in the cargo area.

"You didn't expect that I would send some of your measly followers out to get the rest, did you?" Magneto challenged. "I knew you'd want to call the deal off, just take what you had and bring it back to HYDRA, so I made arrangements." Neeka lifted her nose up defiantly and took a checklist out of her pocket.

"We'll see if that's all of them," she huffed angrily, stomping her way over to the other cart to see what Mutants had been captured.

* * *

Iris wiped her eyes for what was hopefully the last time and looked around the empty, trashed lab. She knew she did wrong, but wasn't it okay if it was for the right reason? Her hands were folded in her lap, and she wasn't as eager as before to know how to get Mneme back. With a sigh, she stood up and walked outside, only to see everyone tied, wrapped, and stacked in a cart pulled by horses. Magneto and Neeka were talking lowly, and neither of them looked very happy. Iris approached them and stared at Magneto demandingly, ready to receive what she had worked for. "What?" he asked stingily. Iris held out her hand to make things more clear. "Oh, you want your reward…" he realized, folding his arms as he tried to think up something. "You don't get it just yet. There are some Mutants missing that we need to catch." Magneto took the checklist from Neeka, who glared at him for a moment before returning her gaze to Iris. He handed it to the girl, and she read the names quickly and looked up at him, wondering why she should care. "Help us catch them and you'll get your reward." Crushing the paper in her hand, she stomped her foot angrily; catching the Mutants wasn't part of the deal she had made! She was fed up with doing things that she hadn't agreed to. "So, where are the rest of the X-Men students?" Magneto asked, pointing to a group of names that read _Cannonball_, _Magma_, _Multiple_, and a few others. Iris shrugged, not recognizing any of the names.

"Well, that was a big help," Neeka said sarcastically with a snort.

Magneto ignored her and continued, "What about Wolverine and Quicksilver?" Iris narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin up, trying to make out an expression beneath the shadow from his helmet, but he seemed sincere enough…. She nodded. "Where are they?" he asked anxiously. Iris shrugged, but held her hand up to shush them before they made any assumptions. First she pointed at the burned mansion. "They were in the lab?" She nodded, then made her fingers look like legs walking across the ground. "And then they left." To sum it up, she pointed to Quicksilver's name and then pointed to the backyard.

"He went to the backyard?" Neeka asked with confusion.

"Typical. I should've guessed that he'd go to Mneme's grave," Magneto said, a crooked smile playing on his lips under his helmet's shadow. "Alright, now can you tell me where an old man and a young woman are? Their house is somewhere in the middle of the forest, but I have a feeling you'll be able to lead us straight to them." Iris furrowed her brow. She knew he was talking about the couple that helped her and Pietro when Colossus had beaten him. Even so, she shrugged, not wanted to rat out even more people. Magneto gritted his teeth and grabbed her shoulders, crushing them in his grip, and lifted her off the ground so they saw eye to eye. "Listen here, you little brat, I know you've met them," he growled, eyes burning and boring into her own. Her own eyes were open wide with fear. Magneto tossed her to the ground, making her land on her back with a thud. "No matter…. Neeka, take half the footmen and scout the forest until you find them. They're practically defenseless," he commanded, turning his gaze towards Iris so he didn't catch the upset glare from Neeka, since she was used to being the boss. "And you…" he said with narrowed eyes, "…you're going to help capture Pietro and Logan."

* * *

Pietro and Logan spoke in low voices as they discussed their plan. "You'll create the diversion while I sneak over and get Rogue's key."

Logan looked at him apathetically. "That's your plan?" Pietro nodded, confirming his question. "You've got to be joking."

"Well, smart guy, why don't you think up something better?!" he challenged.

"Listen, kid, I'm not the type cut out for diversions."

"When a whole group of people is after you, yes you are!"

Logan rubbed his temple. "Why do we even need that key, anyway?"

"To unlock Mneme's collar. Trust me, I'm almost certain it'll work."

"Of course it's going to work; the key was specifically made to unlock it."

"That's not what I meant. I remembered that Mneme has almost every power there is, so one of them _has_ to be coming back to life, only the collar is holding her powers in."

Logan was slightly surprised that Pietro would think of something that complex. "But she can't even contain her powers."

"It might not work, but how else are we supposed to get out of this situation?" Pietro asked, knowing that there was no other way.

"Well, what happens if I get captured and it doesn't work? Then what'll you do on your own?"

"I guess we'd better just hope that Mneme wakes up." Pietro told him. Logan looked at him unsatisfactorily. "You're forgetting that the world is going to end if we don't get the magnetic fields back in place. And I think you're forgetting that the only person that has the ability to change them back is probably Mneme."

Logan furrowed his brow and glared at him. "Fine. I'll do it."

Since they were on the same page, they crouched in the bushes and watched the group by the carts, waiting for the right moment. Neeka was getting in the cart that had just arrived, and they were leaving. About half of the HYDRA members she had brought were jogging beside the cart, leaving just the other half, Magneto, and Iris to guard the first cart containing the X-Men. Wolverine silently made his way around the edge of the forest, making sure when he revealed himself he wouldn't give away Pietro's position. He watched as a few of the footmen walked by, patrolling for any more Mutants.

"She actually said that to you?"

"Yeah, can you believe that? I support that whole household and she actually said that."

"Wow, what a bitch."

Logan rolled his eyes; they sounded like three highschool cheerleaders. He balled up his fists and the blades became unsheathed between his knuckles, blood coming along with them. All in one motion he jumped out and stabbed two of them in the back, then sliced through their sides and straight into the guy standing in the middle; they never had a chance. As he expected, the rest of the footmen saw him and stormed forward, nets and needles ready.

Iris studied the checklist. Under the heading _Morlocks_ there was a check next to _Caliban_,_ Callisto_,_ Cybelle_,_ Facade_,_ Lucid_,_ Scaleface_,and _Torpid_. She didn't know any of them, or _Angel_, _Boom-Boom_—in fact she didn't know about half the Mutants listed on the paper. But suddenly something caught her eye: There was a checkmark next to the name _Magneto_. She glanced over at him, wondering why his name would be checked off. Perhaps he was captured and their slave, being forced to act all this out? Or perhaps they just checked it off because he was on their side and didn't have to be captured at all…. Suddenly she heard the rumbling of multiple footsteps and looked up to see what the commotion was all about. The footmen were sprinting over to where Logan was, and he was slicing some of them up. She was torn between whom to help for a moment, but she remembered that if she helped capture him that would bring her closer to having her mother back…. Iris was about to run over to lend them a hand, but Magneto blocked her with his arm.

"Don't do it; it's probably a trap of some sort." Magneto could tell that she wasn't fully convinced with that theory. "Even though he's fighting back and it seems real enough, don't get involved." Iris looked at him skeptically, but nodded. She leaned her back against the cart and kept looking at the list, digging images out of her subconscious and wondering if perhaps it was one of the Mutants on the list.

Pietro watched the men sprint over to the other side of the yard, leaving his way clear of harm except for Iris and Magneto. They were standing at the side of the cart, so he moved along the edge of the woods until he was out of their range of vision—in short, he was facing the other side of the cart. He slunk over as stealthily as he could, then pressed his back against the cart. He peeked around the side, making sure no one could see him, and then he clambered onto the piled up unconscious bodies. Everyone was covered in individual gray sacks, so he was going to have his work cut out for him trying to find which one was Rogue. He pressed his body flat to make sure he wasn't visible to Iris or Magneto in case they turned around, and the sides of the wagon were tall enough to where neither of them could see over the top. He could tell that the feet were located at the tied off end of the sacks, so he looked at each of the bodies that seemed the same size as Rogue. Silently he untied one of the ropes that held the bag closed and examined the feet. They were Kurt's, which was obvious. He tied it back and moved a few bodies until he reached one that looked the same size as Rogue. He untied it and saw Rogue's shoes, so he reached up and found her wrist, then pulled the bracelet with the key off. Suppressing an ecstatic shout, he put it in his pocket and crawled forward to get out of the wagon—but was stopped when something extremely heavy was thrown on top of him. He bit his lips as to not make a noise, and turned his head to see a body in a gray bag on top of him, having been thrown over the side. He was lucky they hadn't gone to the back to throw Wolverine on the pile, or else they would have seen him. Taking a deep breath, he tried to pull himself closer to the edge, but Logan was too heavy. Pietro gritted his teeth, trying his best not to groan with fury, and twisted his torso around enough to where he could get a grip on Logan's shoulders and push him up enough to roll onto his back. He used his legs to prop the body up, gathered as much strength as he could muster, and kicked Logan off of him. The deadweight of the body landed with enough force to rock the wagon slightly, and Pietro's eyes grew wide with nervousness. Expecting someone to notice and look to see what the commotion was, he pushed a few bodies aside and crawled underneath them to hide.

Iris furrowed her brow when the wagon slightly swayed. Magneto hadn't noticed it, but she had been leaning against it and could tell that something wasn't right. She walked around to the back and took a look to see what was up. Suspiciously, there seemed to be nothing wrong at all, besides the fact that the new addition to the pile was carelessly thrown in the cart. Wolverine was askew compared to the rest of the Mutants, who were neatly placed and stacked; for some reason he was leaned up against the side of the cart, not even aligned with the other Mutants. Iris furrowed her brow and stepped up into the cart to fix it.

Pietro watched from underneath the bodies and watched Iris get nearer and nearer—until her foot slipped and stepped on the back of his head. He grunted unexpectedly, and he could tell by the way she paused that Iris had heard him. Cursing himself, he quickly untied the sack in front of him and crawled inside next to whichever Mutant was in there.

Iris stopped when she thought she heard something, but when she turned around and looked down, everything was fine. She raised an eyebrow curiously, but in the end just shrugged and guessed the tranquilizer must've been wearing off on one of the Mutants. She continued to place Wolverine along with the others neatly, and when she was done she hopped over the side of the cart.

Pietro waited a few more seconds after feeling the cart rock and hearing a thud of someone landing on the ground before checking to make sure she wasn't there anymore. He twisted his body around and peeked out the bag, and Iris was nowhere to be seen. With a silent sigh of relief, he started crawling out, but stopped short when he saw a pair of familiar maroon boots. Raising an eyebrow skeptically, he lifted the cloth up and pulled it off to reveal who it was. Who he saw confused him extremely, because wasn't Magneto standing right outside the wagon? Pietro crawled over to the side and peeked over, just to make sure the person standing there really was Magneto, and it most certainly looked like him. Blinking a few times in confusion, he looked back at the tranquilized and tied up Magneto, and that looked exactly like him too. His head swam, wondering what the heck was going on. They couldn't both be Magneto, could they? Were neither of them Magneto? Maybe one of them was an imposter? Pietro shook his head, trying to clear his mind before he thought too hard and ended up passing out, and then covered the unconscious Magneto again and tying the sack closed. Then he crept over to the edge of the wagon and carefully stepped onto the ground. He slipped around the corner and pressed his back against the side of the cart, holding his breath. Quickly he darted back into the woods and crouched down, examining the footmen's positions. Pietro was anxious to get over to Mneme and unlock her collar, but there were too many HYDRA members around that area. He bit his lip; he was quick, but without his powers he wasn't fast enough to get by without being seen…. He sighed, hoping that Magneto and the others would leave soon so he could finish his plan…which he wasn't even sure would work. Of course, just the opposite happened: Instead of them going away, another person came. _Typical_, Pietro thought, annoyed. _That's just great…_ He furrowed his brow and squinted his eyes—was that someone he knew? She was walking up the driveway and toward the wagon, and she looked pretty determined, as if she only had one thing on her mind and that was the only thing that kept her together. _No, I don't know any girls like that_, Pietro said to himself, almost laughing at the thought as he walked deeper into the woods, but then he thought about it a little harder and took another look at the newcomer. _No, it can't be—Wanda__?_


	30. Chapter Thirty

Alright, last chapter is up. Hope you enjoy! I worked really hard on it.

The ending is a little confusing, but it was hard to explain...

Anyway, I hope you like it! =D

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution, _any of its characters, or _Death Adder_._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris and Neeka because I made them up._**

**Chapter Thirty**

Iris looked at the new addition to the group. She looked very…rebellious. Her hair was short, much like a boy's cut, but she was also very pretty, though her expression was smug when she glanced at Iris. "Is that the 'sweet and gentle girl' that you were going to try and 'turn against her allies'?" she asked Magneto. Iris furrowed her brow: That girl talked about her like she wasn't even there!

He looked at her disapprovingly and ignored the question. "Wanda, I didn't expect you to be coming…_here_. I thought I told you to get those confinement containers and have them ready for when we have all the Mutants," he said sternly with an irritated tone; it was obvious that he and this so-called Wanda knew each other, judging by how short Magneto's temper was with her.

She scoffed. "Take it easy, '_Magneto_'," she said, emphasizing his name with finger-quotes, maybe just to push his buttons. "It's already done. They're waiting on the edge of town." Wanda strolled around to the back to get a good look at all the bodies they had stacked up. "Who are you missing, anyway?"

"Your brother," Magneto replied dryly. Iris's jaw dropped. Pietro and that girl were actually…_related_? Iris never really thought she'd have an aunt, and she really didn't expect her to look like that.

His answer caught Wanda by surprise, but she didn't show it. "That figures." She looked at Magneto with disappointment. "Just when I thought no one could top his stupidity." Iris looked at her with surprise for how unafraid she was to insult Magneto. "But I'm not complaining—as long as I get my fair share of the pay. Then I can get my ass out of that dump you call home and maybe start actually living."

A muffled groan sounded from the cargo of the wagon, and Iris knew that a few of them must've been waking up. She looked at Magneto expectantly. "We'll have to get going and lock up the Mutants we've got now and come back for Pietro—we don't have enough tranquilizer to go around to all of them, and it'll be twice as hard if they wake up and escape…"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Wanda said in a demanding tone. "Get up here and call your footmen!" she commanded, jumping up into the driver's seat. Iris could tell that Magneto wasn't very pleased with taking orders from a teenager, but that was going to be his plan anyway, so he continued up onto the bench, followed by Iris. Wanda took the reins and slapped them against the horses' flanks, startling them out of their lazy standing slumber. It was clear that Wanda wasn't very experienced at steering, but she still got them off the circular driveway and on the road. The HYDRA footmen ran after them hurriedly, not wanting to be left behind.

Magneto cleared his throat. "Wanda, I don't think you've been properly introduced to my new henchman," he started. "Her powers are quite powerful for only being seven months old, and for some reason she still has access to them, so I'm hoping they'll become even more powerful as she grows older. Her name is Iris, and this is Wanda—also known as Scarlet Witch." Iris smiled kindly at her and held out her hand for a handshake, but the other girl just glanced down at it.

"Sorry, but I don't really feel like becoming acquainted with a traitor," she said haughtily, a conceited grin playing across her face. Iris flinched, jerking her hand back as if Wanda had slapped it. Although her face didn't show it, Iris's insides were torn apart by her words. The gray feeling that she had been trying to suppress was easily feeding off her emotions, growing and thickening like a mold throughout her body. Just thinking of what she had done to them made her muscles go numb, her senses fuzzy, making her mind the only thing functioning: Maybe…perhaps Mneme didn't want to come back? Would she want to face the fact that Pietro had been lying to her the whole time, didn't care that she died, and left her and her baby out in the arctic? Iris knew that if Roland had done that to her, she wouldn't want to live anymore…. Would Mneme think the same way? Iris shut her eyes tightly, shutting her mind from those thoughts: Iris wanted Mneme back, and that's why she was doing what she was. Then when she had her back, Mneme would set everything straight.

Right…? Or would she say that Iris needed to learn her lesson and save them herself? Iris felt pressure coming in at her from all angles as she realized so many things that made her doubt her decision of brining back Mneme—

Iris took a breath and relaxed herself when she realized she wasn't breathing. She had been shutting her eyes so tight that it took a while for the stars in her vision to go away, and she was clenching her fists hard enough that her fingernails cut into her palms until they started bleeding. With a grimace of disdain, she used her powers to convert the winds energy into her own, making the cuts heal in a split second. She didn't do it intentionally, so when she saw it happen her eyebrows raised in surprise. Iris turned to look at Magneto, but he wasn't there, and neither was Wanda. In fact, no one was around but the still horses, holding the wagons at a halt. With concern, she turned around and leaned over the back of the bench-like seat to see if the Mutants were still in the cargo area, but they had obviously been removed.

* * *

After HYDRA left, Pietro waited a while, just in case, before approaching Mneme's grave. She was still laying there, the same as ever. Slightly nervous, Pietro jumped down into the pit and pulled the key out of his pocket. Looking at the key, he knew this was his only chance—everyone's only chance to stay alive. Without Mneme, all life on Earth was probably going to be wiped out, turned into a bleak wasteland…. He waited for a few moments, heart racing, wondering what they would be left to do if she didn't come back to life—or if her powers went rampaging and destroyed the whole Earth instead of whatever was causing the magnetic fields to—_what_ was he thinking?! Mneme was their only hope, so he had to try. Blocking all other thoughts from his mind and concentrating only on his beloved darling, he swallowed hard and brought his hand shakily forward, inserting the key into the keyhole, activating the tumblers. Expecting the worse, Pietro covered his head and crouched down beside the coffin, hoping whatever happened wouldn't hurt him. After a few moments of silence, he blinked his eyes open, forcing himself not to assume anything. Timidly he stood up and looked at her porcelain face, shaped so perfectly, but it was also lifeless.

He waited. For anything. Any sign that she was alive again…anything…. Pietro knew it hadn't worked—her collar was electronic; the change in the magnetic fields made it stop working a long time ago—but still he hoped that she would open her eyes, take a breath, stir a little… Pietro his throat tighten as he started to get choked up, and warm tears rolled endlessly down his face, the reoccurring droplets mocking him and his foolishness. He had hoped too much, believed that she would actually come back, and he couldn't face that Mneme was gone forever. The wound that he had sealed he just carelessly ripped open by thinking she would come back made him vulnerable, and the tears that he couldn't hold back only felt like acid as they fell into that wound. He had just wanted her back so badly that he didn't think before making his decision, and now he was burned with his own growing desire…

* * *

Iris found the others not far off. They were standing next to large metal boxes about twelve feet tall and eleven feet wide, and two that were twice as big as the others. She walked up to them, guessing that the boxes were the "containers" that Magneto had been talking about. No doubt the Mutants were all stored in them now… "Four feet thick on each side, pure adamantium," Magneto said proudly. "There's no way they'll be escaping."

Wanda gave a huff. "Don't forget that it takes twenty-five men just to pull those things across the sand—it took us forever to get those here!"

"Yes, and I appreciate you following orders," he said with annoyance. "I don't really care how they got here, as long as they got here. And they're right in front of me, so I don't have to punish you." Wanda rolled her eyes, then spotted Iris.

"What are you just standing there for? Aren't you supposed to be getting Pietro?" she demanded. Iris was a little taken aback, but nodded and started to conjure up some wind.

"Wait," Magneto said before she could fly off. "I would like to…discuss terms again." Iris narrowed her eyes skeptically, wondering if he was trying to go back on their deal. "But first, hear what I have to say. Why would you want Mneme back? Sure she was your mother for a few days, but she also had more power than any living being on this planet. Don't you think if she wanted to, she would've defeated me back in Antarctica?" His point wasn't clear, or perhaps it wasn't yet defined, but his words had Iris confused. What was he trying to get at? "Don't you think, with all that power, she could've easily made things go her way, make everything easier for the X-Men, even kept you from being abandoned in the cold?" Magneto asked, making it sound as if Mneme had a choice of what happened to her. Iris furrowed her brow; she didn't like anyone talking about her mother like that—Mneme would never get killed on purpose, especially for her own sake! Her fists balled up, fury inside her bubbling, the energy extending out past her limbs, fire forming around her whole body and smoke trailing from her nose as she took deep breaths to try and contain herself. "There's no need to get upset, I just want to know if you have any idea what she's hiding and why, since it's clear that she was defeated on purpose…" Iris glared at him unsurely, not sure if he was serious or just toying with her head.

"He's got a point," Wanda piped up. "She had enough power to kill all life on Earth with one sweep of her hand, and you killed her…" she said with a tone of wonder. Magneto nodded, pleased with her interest. But his outlook was soon changed when Wanda continued, "A weakling like you! No smarts, no real power—yeah, she definitely died on purpose," she finished with a satisfied look. Magneto's fists, clenched tightly, were shaking with anger. She opened her mouth to add another sly remark, but Magneto's fist in her face shut her up in an instant, also knocking her to the ground. When his attention was returned to Iris, she wasn't on fire anymore and she seemed to be contemplating their discussion.

_I've got her now,_ he thought, knowing that Iris would trust him. She looked up at him with her big green eyes, a pleading look that clearly showed she was torn two ways. All she needed was a little lie, a bit of persuasion, to get her to fully believe him. "I'm not trying to make you lose respect for your mother, but in truth, when we were back up in Antarctica I only wanted to talk, but she attacked me first. I had no choice but to defend myself, but she was relentless and I realized it was a fight to the death. I'm truly sorry, and I wish that it didn't come to that, but she started it," he lied to her, twisting the story around. Iris looked at the ground, not knowing what to say or think. It did make sense, everything that he was saying, and she knew that he was probably right. What could Mneme have done that would be so horrible that she would get herself killed? Was it because she couldn't bare the shame? Or perhaps the blame? Maybe dying was the only way to keep some sort of secret hidden? "You understand my take on things, I assume?" Magneto asked Iris, pulling her out of her thoughts. She nodded bleakly, respect for her mother already fading. "Then I'm sure you'd like to change our deal then. How about we talk things over?" he offered, putting an arm around her shoulders comfortingly and guiding her towards through the woods, their discussion being made as they walked side by side.

Even though the atmosphere was quite calm, she felt uneasy and depressed, making her lost in her own thoughts, Magneto's words just tumbling over themselves in a drone. The person she knew as Mneme was all a lie…. Could it be true?

* * *

Kitty's eyes were wide with fear in the pure blackness. She was waking up right before a man through her into a huge metal box—and there were so many of them line up right next to each other. That was all she saw before the side of the box was slid shut and she was encased in darkness. Her heart was beating so fast; she didn't know what was going on or what was going to happen to her and her friends. The magnetic fields didn't seem to be the problem anymore…. Tears filled her eyes and she buried her face in her hands, a few sobs escaping from her. What did HYDRA and Magneto want? Why did they form an alliance?

"Kitty? Kitty, is that you?" a familiar voice called from the box next to hers. It was faint, but still audible.

Kitty gasped. "Kurt? Yeah, I'm, like, right here! Are you okay?" She pressed her ear against the metal to hear him better.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but I have a huge bump on my head…" he replied. "Vhat about you? Are you hurt?"

"Other than being trapped inside this box, I'm fine," she said, a little happier now for some reason. She didn't know why, but she was smiling extremely wide at just the sound of his voice.

"Yeah, they're a lot smaller on the inside than they look…" Kurt said with a laugh.

"Seriously," Kitty agreed. "I don't even have enough room to stand up, and my elbows, like, touch the sides without even stretching them out." Her back was starting to hurt from being hunched over, so she sat down, having to pull her knees up to her chest just to fit. She flinched when someone banged on the other side of the box. "Uh…hello?" she asked the person, pressing her ear on the other side of her box.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!" a voice screamed, almost blowing Kitty's eardrum out. She pulled her ear away and held her hand over it.

Jean heard the yell to her left, surprised that she could hear anything through the thick metal. "What's wrong?" she called back.

"I'M DYING! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Although the voice was loud, she could hardly hear it, so she put her ear on the metal. "PLEASE GET ME OUT!" It was so loud that it hurt, but Jean was determined to help.

"Okay, calm down. Pyro? Is that you?" she asked in a soothing voice, recognizing the Australian accent. "It's okay, my container is really cramped too," Jean assured.

"No, the walls are closing in on me, mate!" he yelled, taking heavy breaths, clearly panicking. "I'm running out of air!" His voice wasn't as loud, but it was still as unnerved.

"John, just concentrate on my voice," Jean ordered. _He must be claustrophobic…_she thought. "Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Relax all your muscles—"

"I can't!" Pyro yelled through gritted teeth, clenching his fists and pounding on the sides of the box. "I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!"

"No, you'll be fine! I promise that the walls aren't closing in on you and that you're okay! Just relax, loosen up your muscles and take a deep breath. Everything will be alright!" Jean told him, trying to get through to him. Pyro gripped his hair, feeling the oxygen depleting…. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath, just like Jean had told him, and then he relaxed his muscles, feeling slightly calmer. "Good. Know concentrate only on breathing slowly and steadily." Pyro bit his lip, sweat still pouring off his forehead, but he forced himself to breath normally. After a little while, he had forgotten all about being in such a small space. "Pyro? Are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm okay…I think. I'm trying to stay calm…"

"You're doing great—"

"Hello?" Kitty said, trying again since the noise died down. "Pyro, that sounds like you in there. Are you, like, okay?"

"Yeah, mate."

Jean could hear Kitty's voice just as well as she heard Pyro's. _She must be on the other side of Pyro's container,_ she assumed. "Kitty, can you hear me?"

"Jean? Is that, like, you? I thought I heard another voice!"

"Vhat, are you just going to forget about the Fuzzy Dude?" Kurt said disappointedly.

"Kurt! You're here too?"

"Whoa, am I hearing voices or is that really you guys?" Evan's voice sounded.

"No, it's really us," Jean answered. "Wow, your voices sound so clear—they must be traveling through the metal!"

"Very good, Jean. Adamantium is an extremely capable substance for sound wave courses, surprisingly. The metal absorbs sound waves, unlike most metals, and it's so dense that the waves can easily spread throughout the metal without breaking up or slowing down."

"Professor McCoy!"

"Will you bozos keep it down?!" Lance yelled at them.

"Yeah, man, this already sucks enough as it is without you guys blowing my ears out." Toad piped in.

"If _you_ don't pipe down I'll be hangin' your hide on my wall for talkin' to my friends like that!" Rogue threatened.

"Ew, I'm TOTALLY not going to be, like, looking at that in the room that I sleep in," Kitty said, reminding that they shared a room.

Rogue snorted. "You're right, he's too ugly to be put my wall."

"Combien coute un massage de le du dos…?" ("How much is a back massage?") a sleepy voice said with a yawn.

She gasped. "Remy?" she said ecstatically.

At the sound of his name, he was instantly awake from his dream. "Eh? Oh, oui. Comment cava?" ("Eh? Oh, yes. How's it going?")

"Cava. Je ne parle pas tres bien francais…" ("It's going. I don't speak French very well…") Rogue answered modestly; she actually spoke French very well for learning on her own for just a few months.

Remy chuckled, stretching his arms tiredly above his head, but he wasn't able to very high in the tight space. "I think you're coming along very well," he complimented. Rogue felt her face turn red, and she was embarrassed even though no one could see her.

"Is Scott here too?" Jean asked with concern.

"I'm right here," he replied, fully satisfied that she asked about him.

After everyone joined into the conversation—besides the Morlocks, who were silent and not even known to be there—whether they were arguing or cracking jokes, the Professor knew that someone had to remind everyone of the situation they were in. "That's all good and well, but I think we need to figure out a way to get out of here," Xavier said, returning everyone back to reality.

"I highly agree with you, Charles," an unwelcome voice said. The X-Men were absolutely silent, not really sure how to react. He certainly wasn't captured—was the voice coming from outside the containers?

"Too bad you don't have your powers, Magneto," Lance said disappointedly. "Blob couldn't even make a dent in the metal."

"Yeah, man, Magneto'd be able to open these doors and then fold these boxes into origami," Toad said with a chuckle.

"What are you talking about? He's the one who put us in here in the first place!" Scott said with disgust.

"What are _you_ talking about?! Magneto was with us when we were captured, yo!" Toad told him.

"That's impossible!" Jean said, defending Scott. "I saw Magneto with Scarlet Witch right before I was thrown into this container. There's no way he was captured."

Almost immediately sides were taken, words being thrown every which way, trying to prove who was right. The sound and reverberations were overbearing to the ears, and eventually Storm couldn't take it anymore. "SILENCE!" she commanded. "Your bickering isn't going to solve anything. Let's try to get some facts straight. You said Wanda was with him?"

"Yes," Jean replied.

"But that can't be right," Evan spoke up. "Mastermind's powers wore off—her mind would be back to normal, and she hates Magneto."

"Well, he couldn't, like, have been captured _and_ helping HYDRA—could he have?" Kitty asked, slightly confused.

"Ugh, all this stuff is making my head hurt…" Fred groaned, completely lost.

"Magneto could've faked his capture," Beast suggested.

"I can assure you that I did not," Magneto said defensively. "Besides, I haven't seen Wanda since Mystique left." It wasn't like the X-Men to falsely accuse someone on purpose, so perhaps they were telling the truth? No, they couldn't be: It wasn't like he could be in two places at once.

Xavier thought for a moment, trying to keep an open mind. "It's possible that Wanda and Mystique left together," he pointed out. Everyone was silent, listening intently to what their leaders had to say.

"My thoughts exactly," Magneto replied. "And I have a feeling that the Magneto you saw isn't the real one."

"Vhat do you mean?" Kurt asked, not quite sure what he was getting at.

"He means that you saw Mystique disguised as him," Colossus spoke up.

"B-but I thought her powers d-didn't work," Pyro said shakily, starting to imagine the walls closing in on him again.

"Exactly," Beast said, elaborating, "She must've been in the form of Magneto when our powers stopped working, and now she can't change back."

"Leave it to Mystique to find an advantage to anything," Rogue said with repulsion.

"That must be why Scarlet Witch is on their side," Remy said. "She and Mystique must've been on HYDRA's side for some time."

"That's probably why she'd be gone for days from time to time," Lance thought aloud. "And then they had their chance—ambush us without our powers."

"The cowards." Jean insulted. She sighed. "But that's not going to help us escape."

"Ugh…. What's going on…?" and unfamiliar voice said.

"Who is that?" Evan asked.

"Oh no—I'M NAKED!" the man said in a panicked voice. And disappointedly adding, "And…in one of the confinement containers…"

"Erm…yeah. We're all in one," Kitty said.

"But I'm not supposed to be in one!"

"None of us are."

"No, I'm part of HYDRA—that damn lizard boy must've done this. That's the second time he's gotten away from us…" the man said, mostly to himself.

"Wait—Roland got away?" Scott asked, seeing it as a glimmer of hope for escaping.

"If that's what you call that reptilian freak, then yes. 'Roland' got away," the HYDRA member confirmed. "I have to get out of here, so…have you found out a way to get out of these things?" he asked sheepishly.

* * *

Roland changed into the HYDRA uniform that he stole from the member that he knocked out after the man had tried to throw him into some kind of metal box. Of course, Roland had to refuse: Without sunlight, his body temperature would drop too low and he would die. So he came out from behind the container and saw a few more Mutants being tossed in the cramped spaces. He raised his brow as the sight of Magneto being thrown in one of them, but something didn't seem right. Why would he be put in a box? And he smelled quite different…. Roland stiffened when he noticed the HYDRA member looking at him oddly. Nervously, he wrapped his tail around his leg more tightly, trying to keep it hidden under the baggy clothes. "They can't even afford to buy us fitting clothes," the man complained, shaking his head at Roland's uniform. "What a shame. They've gotten so cheap over the past years…" And with that he turned and left.

Roland gave a sigh of relief, glad that he wasn't recognizable. Thank goodness the uniform came with mask—a very ugly mask, but it covered his whole head, so he couldn't complain. Suddenly he picked up a scent on the wind—_Iris… _Quietly he made his way to the front row of containers, giving an odd glance at a knocked out girl with a bloody nose on the ground, and then walked casually past and slunk into the shadows of the forest. Seeing that he was successful at being undetected, he jumped into the nearest tree. _These clothes…they make too much noise._ After stripping down to his usual suit and stretching out his tail, he followed her scent, staying high in the trees. After a few minutes, he spotted her in a clearing—with Magneto. _That's impossible—I just saw him being thrown into a container! _The wind brought him their scents, and it was different than the scent of the Magneto that had been captured. But why? Were they two different people?

Suddenly it hit him. That smell was familiar, one that he recognized back at the HYDRA base. _Mystique. _He remembered that she would occasionally come to HYDRA, with the girl that he had seen knocked out on the ground, who he remembered to be Wanda. They used to talk to Neeka, and browse the Mutants kept at HYDRA. And now Mystique was disguised as Magneto? It didn't make sense. _That doesn't matter now,_ he told himself.

Roland looked down at Iris from the safety of the trees. She and Mystique were talking, but he was too far to make out any words. Mystique was making gestures that made Roland assume that he was explain something to her, and she looked quite sad, but after a few more seconds she looked seriously angry—in fact, she didn't look like Iris at all. Her hair was standing on end, her eyes full of hatred. Mystique said a few more words, and Iris was nodding. _They must be orders_, Roland thought to himself, having a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He watched as they shook hands, and then Iris jumped off the ground, kicking up dust as she went, flying high into the air and zooming towards the Xavier Institute. They obviously made another deal, but perhaps she was just going over there because maybe Mystique told her how to bring Mneme back. Either way, Roland didn't like the looks of things, so he jumped from tree to tree, slithering through the air to try and keep up with Iris.

* * *

Wanda appeared from deep within the woods, approaching with a uniform in her hands. "Mystique—"

"Don't call me that when I'm in this form; someone might hear you," she interrupted.

"I'll call you whatever I want," Wanda spat, but she soon loosened up. "Besides, there's no one around—at least not anymore."

"What do you mean?" Mystique asked her.

"Death Adder—the one we were thinking of buying to work for us before he escaped—apparently knocked out whoever was stuffing him in the confinement container and took his clothes as a disguise."

"_WHAT_?!"

"I saw one of the members walking towards the woods, and I saw a tail tip sticking out of the pants leg, so I knew it was him," Wanda explained, throwing the uniform at Mystique's feet. "I was just waking up from when _you_ knocked me out," she said with a glare, "and I saw him jump in the trees, then the uniform fall to the ground. I knew he'd be following his girlfriend, that Iris girl."

"Why didn't you stop him?!" Mystique shouted at her.

"Don't get mad at me! He's way too fast for me to catch without my powers. Besides, he won't be that hard to catch—wherever Iris goes, he'll go, and she's going to go catch Pietro."

Mystique thought it over in her head. "Alright. He shouldn't be a problem; I have Iris completely convinced, her loyalty is wholly with us. We just have to tell her to catch Death Adder when she returns with Pietro."

"Good thing you were able to convince her. I mean, you have no idea how to bring Mneme back, and then when Iris would figure out that you lied to her, she'd probably kill you." Wanda laughed with delight at the thought.

* * *

"I'm such an idiot!" Pietro screamed at himself, lying on the ground next to the ditch. _I am so lame. I was crying. Guys aren't supposed to cry…. God, I'm pathetic. And plus Mneme isn't here to make me feel better._ Pietro thought to himself. _How did she change me so much? I used to think I was the coolest person in the world, and she was able to change my whole personality in less than a month and make me realize how lame I am. Was. Whatever…_ He grimaced and turned his head to look down at her. So much power, and she was dead…. All because his dumb father. "And that stupid collar," he added aloud, but he suddenly noticed something. "Oh my God…." He jumped into the ditch beside her coffin and examined her collar. "That stupid collar with a key in it that wasn't turned!" _Man, I'm lame, pathetic, AND stupid._ Pietro didn't know whether to be happy that he had another chance or angry that he didn't realize it in the first place. Even though he had put the key in the keyhole to the collar, he never turned it to unlatch the mechanism inside that kept it shut, so her powers were still being concealed. Pietro's heart beat faster with nervousness and joy as he timidly reached to turn the key, but he paused for a moment. "What's that noise? AAAAA!" he yelled as he was shoved fifty feet in the air by an unnatural gust of wind, landing on his back with a loud thud. Putting his hands on his face, his groaned, "Ugh…. What the hell _was_ that? AAA! Holy—what happened to you, Iris?" he asked, slightly scared by her look as he peeked between his fingers. The whites of her eyes were beetle black, the iris fading from white to black as the use of her powers wore off. Her smile was no longer the innocent, sweet, shy smile she once wore, but a toothy, evil grin that stretched ear to ear. "Wow, that's…really creepy—especially when it's six inches away from my face…" Pietro commented, his eyes drifting, looking at anything but Iris. He rubbed his neck nervously, daring a glance at her, but just her appearance made him flinch, his eyes darting away again. "So…I take that you're here to bring me wherever you took the others?" Her grin grew impressively wider, which Pietro would've never thought possible, since it was already stretched across her face. "I'll assume that's a yes, and…uh…" He looked at her for a moment, forcing himself to look into her empty eyes. They certainly were horrifying. Pietro swallowed, then took his knee and lifted it into her gut, forcing her to collapse, and he rolled over in time so she wouldn't fall on him. Pietro clutched his knee; her abs were surprisingly stone solid even without flexing them. Getting back on his feet, he made a beeline for Mneme; he _had_ to turn that key, for any hope of anything.

He was so close to the ditch, but he fell flat on his face. Looking back at his feet, he saw that the grass had grown incredibly fast and wrapped around them, making its way up his legs. Pietro looked at how close he was, and mustering up all his strength, he pulled his legs forward, ripping all the grass blades and hopping to his feet. With a glance back at Iris, who looked absolutely stunned, he smiled with a little wave and jumped into the ditch.

Iris glowered, her eyes transitioning from green to tan, and the earth from the side of the ditch extended and encased Pietro within a split second, pulling him as it returned to its original spot. Iris walked over and jumped down next to Mneme's coffin, not even casting her a second glance. She smirked at Pietro, now trapped in the ditch wall, only his face and extended arm visible. There was only about a foot between the wall and the coffin, so Pietro kept reaching in hope that he would be able to turn the key, but he was just a few inches short. Iris's smile faded, not sure what he was so desperate about. She looked in the direction that he was reaching, and saw the key. Her wide beam returned as she took the key, waving it in his face. Pietro tried to take it, but he could only bend his arm sideways because the dirt severely limited his movement, and he couldn't twist his arm around. His face was very worried: Was she going to melt it? Crush it? Bury it a thousand feet underground? Pietro whimpered at the thought. She lifted the key high above her head, Pietro's wide eyes locked on it. She was going to somehow destroy it, he just knew…

His eyes followed it through the air after she tossed it behind her. She…she didn't destroy it? Pietro was so happy on the inside, but he didn't show it—otherwise she just might destroy it to see him miserable. With a silent laugh, Iris jumped out of the ditch and levitated the chunk of earth that he was trapped in. Pietro frowned; he had been so close to bringing Mneme back…. Suddenly something caught his eye, a creature darting out of the woods and grabbing the key. He gasped—it was Roland! Maybe he would figure out that Pietro had been trying to unlock Mneme's collar and do the same. Iris hopped on top of the big chunk of floating rock and sat down, making it head back to where Magneto was waiting for her. But a sudden clicking noise made her pause. She turned and looked behind her, but there was no one. Even so, she was no dummy, and could see that Mneme's collar had been opened, and she knew the only hiding place nearby would be in the space where she ripped the chunk of ground. In a flash she jumped up high in the air, forgetting Pietro and letting the chunk hit the ground, much to Pietro's pain and dismay. Iris landed, and a huge explosion forced dust all around. When it cleared, a giant crater was revealed, and nothing else. Iris looked around with a frown, knowing there was someone…. Her head jerked in the direction of Pietro, and suddenly his casing was shattered into pieces. Angered beyond belief, she sent a gust of wind to clear the dusty air, revealing her parents and Roland. Pietro brushed himself off, still not noticing Mneme. "Wow, Roland, thanks a ton—" He paused at the sight of her. She was alive? "It—it worked? My plan worked? But your collar—it's metal—how?"

"The outside is metal, the inside is all plastic," Mneme told him with a smile. Pietro was about to collapse—he couldn't believe it. He ran up to her and crushed her in a tight hug, never feeling so happy in his whole life. Mneme pushed him away and summoned a forcefield just in time to block Iris's attack, sending her flying backwards across the yard. "I can't believe she would succumb to this," she said sadly, her voice filled with pain. "It's all my fault; I never should've fought fairly with a cheater." She looked up sincerely at Pietro, their eyes locked. "If I just defeated Magneto, this never would've happened, but I couldn't bring myself to kill your own father."

"Mneme, it's not your fault—and this can still be dealt with!" Pietro assured, taking her shoulders. She looked at Roland, who nodded in agreement.

"You're right," she said with a smile. "But we can't fix this physically; the problem is in her mind."

Iris shook herself, getting her bearings back. She snarled at Mneme, who took a step forward from the other two, challenging her. Iris was sprinting at the speed of light in an instant, just a blur to the two boys. Mneme, on the other hand, could see her perfectly fine, and she thrust a hand out, static flying from her fingertips, stopping Iris in her tracks. It was all happening so fast that no time passed as Mneme dragged Roland and Pietro with her into Iris's conscious.

"What's going on? Where are we?" Pietro asked, looking down at the nothingness that he was somehow standing on, the gray walls of a maze surrounding them.

"We're inside Iris's mind," Mneme answered. "Her belief that Magneto is the only one that cares about her is like a virus, spreading to every belief of someone else caring about her and taking it over. Her old self is still accessible as long as she still has belief that one person still cares about her besides Magneto."

"Why?" Pietro asked, not really following what she was saying.

"If she hates everyone but Magneto, her perceptions of everyone she hates will be hostile towards us. We'd never be able to defeat them all."

"But Magneto is really Mystique," Roland said in his very mature and responsible sounding voice, which surprised him that he was actually speaking. Even so, he continued, "She's stuck disguised as Magneto."

"Iris doesn't know that, so to her, it's still Magneto," Mneme pointed out. "Willpower is your strength in this place. Your wanting to speak allowed you to, Roland, so it happened. You may also use your powers here. The ones she believes to not care about her will appear infected, and they're violent. You have to fight them. The core virus will be much stronger than the others, and will probably her perception of Magneto. If we're going to have any chance of defeating it, you have to use her own memories against her. Each infected perception of a person will have traits from that person and from Iris."

"I'm confused." Pietro said simply.

"That's okay, it's hard to understand. But we don't have much time—even though we're going so fast that time isn't moving…"

"What?"

"Your mind is much faster than the physical world," Mneme told them. "But that doesn't mean we can take long. Her hatred is spreading as we speak, but I have to explain this to you. The more the person impacts her life, the stronger her perception of them is. Defeating her is going to be hard; what you have to do is to get her core conscious to believe the truth. If we fail at that…" Mneme trailed off, not wanting to elaborate. "Just remember, if you get killed here, you'll be returned to your own mind, probably unconscious, but possibly dead."

"WHAT?"

"Why?"

Mneme groaned in annoyance. "Just go! Hurry and find her core conscious!" In an instant, she was gone, along with Pietro who zoomed off somewhere.

Roland wasn't quite sure what to do, but he started walking down the maze anyway. He turned down another way, and there was something there. It looked like Jean, only with the same eyes and grin as Iris. Her perception of Jean was clearly infected, and she ran forward, taking a punch at Roland. He easily dodged and brought his calf down on her back, knocking her down onto the nonexistent floor. Quickly she sprung back to her feet and used her telekinetic powers to slam Roland against the wall. He fell limp to the floor, but pushed himself up and shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He looked over at Jean, but she was gone—but a hard kick to the back indicated where she was. Roland was pushed forward from the impact, but was able to complete a round-off to land on his feet, ready to fight her. Jean's black eyes had dark rings around them, her skin was pale, and she looked gaunt, with the same grin that Iris had been wearing. Jean lunged towards him, but he jumped up just in time to evade the attack. As he was above her, he twisted around in midair, hitting her with his tail and landing his jump in a dive. Instinctively he rolled when he landed, and looked behind him to see Jean struggling to get up. She glared at him, her grin gone. She put her fingers to her temple and Roland could feel her prying through his mind, trying to take control of him. Suddenly it got harder and harder to breathe, and he couldn't move at all. Instantly he was on the floor, feeling extremely constricted. He remembered what Mneme had said: _"Willpower is your strength in this place."_ Roland concentrated with all his might to get out of Jean's grasp, but he could feel his whole mind slipping away from him…

* * *

Mneme slunk through the maze, trying to find Iris's core conscious. Usually it would be relatively easy for her to find it, but something was blocking her from knowing where it was located…. She bit her lip, wondering what could be strong enough to do that. _That doesn't matter now_, she reminded herself. _I just have to find it…_ She pressed herself against the wall when she heard footsteps coming closer, and she watched as Rogue's infected perception passed by, not noticing her. Mneme slid around the corner, only to come face to face with Pietro's perception. Iris clearly hated him more than anyone else, because out of all the ones she had seen, Pietro looked the worst. His look was plain out rigid, his skin grayish and his eyes an inky black—even the whites. The circles around them were the color of charcoal, and his teeth were disgustingly sharp and an ebony color. Mneme looked at him with a bored expression, then simply pointed a finger at him. A wave in the air occurred, taking everything's energy that was touched by it, but he was gone by the time it had even started. Mneme furrowed her brow, not knowing exactly what had just happened. She sensed someone behind her and whipped around, but the next thing she knew was that she was lying on the floor, disorientated. She shook her head and looked at the infected Pietro staring down at her with his twisted smile. She narrowed her eyes and in a flash was on her feet and throwing a punch at him, all in one swift motion, so fast that not even half of a millisecond passed. But her eyes widened when she realized that she was punching nothing—Pietro had moved fast enough to dodge her punch. _Impossible…_ she thought as she turned, and she just barely moved fast enough to catch a glimpse of him in the air before he elbowed her to the ground. As Mneme fell, she maneuvered to land on her feet, but once again was sent to the floor, this time by a powerful kick to the back. The force bounced her up off the floor and he punched her, making her fly through the air until she hit the wall of the maze. Mneme put a force field around herself, but in the split second it took her to do that Pietro was already just inches in front of her. Mneme cast flames all around, knowing that neither it nor Pietro could escape from within the force field. But before the flames went up, Pietro was already running in circles, containing the fire a cyclone surrounding Mneme. Her head was spinning—she was so frustrated that she couldn't even think straight. Never had she met someone who had more power of anything than her, yet Iris's perception of Pietro was so strong that not even at her fastest could she even lay a finger on him. Her senses were dull from her clouded mind, so she couldn't sense where he was, and she couldn't see him with the tunnel of flames surrounding her, so with a wave of her hand they disappeared along with the force field. Before she could even get a look, Pietro had already taken hold of her arm and threw her against the wall. Mneme knew she was no match, so she tried to teleport away. She looked around her in the new section of Iris's mind maze, but there was no one in sight. With a sigh of relief, Mneme tried to calm down by leaning her head onto one of the gray walls, but something in the air wasn't right—and she knew he was there. Before Mneme could turn around, she was being thrown against the wall once more, then again, and again. Was he so fast that he could run through the whole maze and find her in the short amount of time it took her to rest her head against a wall? She couldn't move fast enough to get away from him, no matter how hard she tried. Was it possible that Iris could hate the real Pietro so much that her perception of him was invincible? She hit the wall and landed on her face, and she looked up at Pietro with a feeling of desperation tearing at her insides as their eyes locked. His brows knitted and his expression became harder, and there was no sign of regret or leniency in his cruel smile, and Mneme felt defeat wash over her…

* * *

Pietro zoomed around, blowing past infected perceptions, trying to find Iris's core conscious in the perplexing maze—to him all the walls looked the same, and he couldn't keep track of where he'd been at all. He passed Rogue, Scott, Kitty, Kurt, Wanda—and he paused there for a moment. "Hey, you look normal. How come she doesn't hate you?" he asked her, a little disappointed. She snarled at him and threw some sort of hex at him, which he dodged with only a split second to spare, and then sped off to anywhere to avoid trouble with her. _Geez, she might be normal in Iris's mind_, he thought to himself,_ but she obviously doesn't want me here. Crazy girl. How can anyone think _she's_ normal?_ That puzzled Pietro a bit, but he stopped when he saw Roland and turned down the corridor to walk beside him. "Hey! Any luck with finding Iris's core conscious?" he asked. Roland glanced at him apathetically. "I'll take that as a no." There was silence for a while. "So…do you like being able to talk?" Again, no answer. Pietro looked at him for a moment, and then realized something. "Oh! You're Iris's perception of Roland, and she's sees you as a mute. Okay, I get it now. So, I guess she doesn't hate you, since it doesn't look like you're infected." Pietro looked at him and frowned. "I guess you two are okay together, but I think she could do better—no offense, of course. I mean, you're a lizard so I'm sure you hear this stuff all the time." There was silence once again, but it was broken by a painful yell. "What was that?" Pietro stopped in his tracks and listened harder. "That sounds like Mneme!" In an instant he was gone, but it was hard to find her just by using sound since it was a maze and getting anywhere wasn't exactly simple. He eventually found her of course, and she was clutching her head, doubled over. "Mneme! Are you alright?! What's wrong?!" he asked her, grabbing her shoulders, and he soon realized that all wasn't as it seemed to be. She started changing, her eyes becoming bruised, her scowl of pain turning into a toothy grin, and her screams phasing into sick laughter. "You're—you're a perception!" Pietro realized, jumping away from her in surprise. He watched as she changed, back and forth between normal and infected, love and hatred, almost as if Iris couldn't decide what she thought about Mneme. It was horrific, the cries and screams of sheer agony changing into deranged, masochistic cackles, and pure beauty being transformed into something hideous. Back and forth it went, Iris's beliefs and feelings fighting each other, sending Mneme to the floor. Pietro watched in astonishment, not knowing what to do to help her, but he remained still as he waited for her to change again. However, the change never came. Mneme was on her hands and knees, panting, yet not in pain anymore. Her hair shielded her face from view, so Pietro couldn't determine what Iris had decided…. The panting was slowly replaced by the faintest of giggles, steadily growing louder into howls of laughter. Pietro knew what Iris had decided on, but why? Why would Iris hate Mneme? What could Mystique have possibly said to make her hate Mneme?

Mneme's perception stood up, and her hair cast a shadow over her face, making it look more emaciated than ever. Her laughter subsided, and she looked up at him with the evilest of smirks. Pietro shivered at how daunting she looked. "Are you ready?" she asked him, eyes narrowed and plasma glowing on her hands.

In truth, Pietro didn't want to fight her. Even if it wasn't the real Mneme, he wouldn't be able to bring himself to do it—and besides, what chance did he stand against someone that powerful? And even though he didn't want to fight her, he was so angry that Iris could even think about hating Mneme! "You can't hate Mneme!" he yelled at her, which caught Mneme's perception off guard.

"What?"

"You can't hate Mneme. She's done _everything_ for you!" he scolded. "If wasn't for Mneme, you'd be in an orphanage, probably to never be adopted because of your powers."

"But I am Mneme!" she shouted back angrily.

"No you're not. You're just a part of Iris, a part of Iris that was misled. You may not have needed saving from the fires, but she thought you did and rescued you. She kept you for her own, fed you, bathed you, and even changed your diapers!" Pietro reminded her, "Mneme loved you, and she still does! That's more than your real parents could ever take credit for."

The perception of Mneme clutched her head, and slowly her features began to change back to normal. "Stop it! You're wrong! She abandoned me!"

"Abandoned you?" he said in angry disbelief. "Why do you think she's here right now?! It's because she loves you and doesn't want you to be used by that scumbag! That's why we're all here!"

She fell to her knees, and suddenly Iris was there in place of the perception. "Shut up! I know that's not true!"

_Her core conscious—it's inside her beliefs!_ Pietro realized. But she was still stuck in transition between infection and normality; all she needed was a little more convincing. "Deep inside you know that Mneme would _never_ abandon you, and you know that whatever Mystique—Magneto told you is a lie. You just feel lost and don't know who to turn to," Pietro told her. "I can tell you that Myst—I mean Magneto—isn't the right person. At least, not the Magneto you know." He outstretched a hand to her, and she glanced at it before staring at him, debating what to believe. He smiled kindly at her, and she slowly reached out to take his hand, the ailing appearance fading from her face. Iris's thoughts of Pietro were changing, and although he couldn't see it, her perception of him was changing, and for the time being Mneme's battle with the perception had ceased since it was no longer hostile.

"Lies!" a familiar—and unwelcome—voice shouted. Pietro turned around with a scowl to see Magneto, and Iris's features became more tainted looking, as if her feelings were stuck right in the middle. "Why else would Mneme leave you in the arctic? Just a small child, all alone—what chance is there of surviving? If it weren't for HYDRA, you'd still be there right now, a rotting carcass."

"_What_? Are you insane? Mneme was killed! She had no choice but to leave her there! And _you_ killed her!" Pietro shot back.

"She let herself be killed. If she wanted, she could've easily killed me and returned back at the institute safely."

"Maybe so, but Mneme isn't that kind of person. She wanted to fight fairly, and you cheated."

"When it comes to life and death, there is no cheating."

"I _know_ that Mneme would _never_ abandon Iris."

"You're right," Magneto agreed with a voice of understanding. Pietro looked at him in confusion. "I was completely wrong. How could I ever think that Mneme abandoned Iris?" There was a slight pause, and Pietro could see the cunning smile under his helmet. "It was _you_."

"What?" Pietro and Iris asked in unison, his voice loud and full of disbelief, hers quiet and confused.

"You brought her to the arctic, you left without her."

Pietro's face took on a regretful, pained look. "I did, but I never meant to leave her—"

"You laughed at Mneme's death and the thought of Iris alone in the snow! It certainly sounds like you meant to leave her."

"No! You had Mastermind change my memories! I had no choice! That—that wasn't me!" he argued, his voice desperate. Turning to Iris, he saw that she was back into the form of the infected perception of Mneme.

He had failed to change Iris's beliefs and had lost contact with her core conscious…

* * *

**April Fools!!!**

It's not the last Chapter.

Sorry, my internet was down last night, so I couldn't upload it on the real April Fool's day...

Sorry, I'm lame...


	31. Chapter ThirtyOne REWRITTEN

_Last Chapter!_

_I rewrote it, so if you read the original one, I hope you like this one better._

_I know I do._

_The las one was a piece of shit, so I hope this is satisfactory._

_If there's something I forgot, or a side plot that still needs to be tied up, just let me know, but I'm pretty sure there's not._

_This chapter is a little confusing, but I hope you enjoy it anyways._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own_ X-Men: Evolution, _any of its characters, or _Death Adder_._**

**_Claimer: I own Mneme and Iris and Neeka because I made them up._**

**Chapter Thirty-One**

Mneme looked at the perception of Pietro—it seemed to be in pain, as if something were tearing it from the inside out. She gasped when she realized that it was loosing its menacing, evil look, and returning to the normal look of Pietro. _He must be in contact with her core conscious!_ she told herself with joy. A spark of hope flickered as a smile across her face, and she hoped that Pietro would be able to convince Iris…. But that hope faded when a shadow fell back across the perception's face, and its toothy smile returned. Mneme's breath caught in her throat—had Pietro failed? "This can't be happening…" she said to herself in disbelief. In an instant, the perception brought his elbow down upon the back of Mneme's neck, and she fell limp to the invisible floor, fading from Iris's mind.

* * *

Everything was black for a few moments, until she opened her eyes. Mneme shook her head and looked around—she was back in the real world? Pietro and Roland were stirring; apparently they had been forced from Iris's mind also. Wiping a bit of blood from her lip and catching her breath, Mneme stood and watched Iris as she recovered herself. After glaring for a few seconds, she looked down at the ground; could it have really come to this? Clenching her fists, Mneme gritted her teeth and wished that things weren't so…

"It's all my fault!" Pietro scolded himself. "I was so close, but I was to stupid to find the right words!" He punched the ground angrily, and Iris grinned to herself in triumph.

"All isn't lost," Mneme said to him, forcing the words out.

He and Roland both looked at her confusedly. "What do you mean?"

"Iris isn't the main priority here," she reminded them, and it pained her to say it. "We have to put things back to the way they were; we can't let the world get destroyed just because of one girl."

There was a short silence. "Are you saying that Iris is our _enemy_?" Pietro asked, not quite sure what Mneme was getting at.

She couldn't bring herself to say the words. "I'm saying that we can't let her stand in the way of what we need to do," she told them.

"But we don't even know why things are going wrong—"

"I do," Mneme said bluntly. "C'mon, we need to take care of this now—"

At that moment, Iris sprang forward, fire encasing her fists. Right before she reached them, there was a bright flash that blinded her for a few moments, and when she looked back, Mneme and the others were gone. Iris snarled furiously, but gathered a gust of wind and headed off: She had a fairly good idea where they had gone.

Mneme and the two boys appeared in the clearing where the Mutants were being held captive. Wanda and who everyone thought was Magneto were standing next to the horse carriages. They glowered at the new arrivals, having not been expecting them. "So Iris failed? I suppose it wasn't that much of a loss," Magneto thought aloud.

"The gig's up, Mystique!" Pietro shouted at her, and Mneme thrust out her hand. The image of Magneto was morphed into the usual Mystique, much to her own dismay. With another thrust of her hand, the containers were opened, and the captives blinked in surprise against the sunlight—and a naked man ran into the woods, and Roland had a guilty look on his face for stealing his clothes.

"Mneme!" a few of them shouted with joy. She held up a hand to tell them to stay back.

"Your lies end here," Mneme said to Mystique. She turned to the others and said loudly, "Mystique has been behind this the whole time. She and Wanda have been sided with HYDRA for some time now, gaining power from them the same way my parents amplified my powers. HYDRA found my parents' experiment notes and have been experimenting themselves on Mutants of their own. Mystique wanted to become stronger herself, so she was injected with the serum, and then it allowed her to use the powers of whomever she morphed into." Mneme glared at the woman. "So she turned into Magneto and used those powers, ten times more powerful than the original Magneto's, to shift the Earth's magnetic fields. I'm sure she didn't realize that her powers would stop working once she did that, and she was stuck disguised as Magneto."

No one was truly sure what Mneme meant, only that Mystique was able to use anyone's powers and was the one who screwed up the Earth. It was almost unbelievable. Their heads turned at the sound of maniacal laughter. "Smart girl," Mystique said to her, "but do you honestly think that I was _stuck_ as Magneto?" Mneme's face fell. "Of course not! I chose to stay like that to keep control over the magnetic fields! I had control over my powers all along." Just to prove it, she changed back into the form of Magneto. "I have to continuously keep a hold on the fields or else they'll slowly change back to the way they were—of course, that would take a couple years, so I think I have enough time to get _rid_ of _you_!" Mystique took the form of Nightcrawler and teleported next to her, then morphed into Cyclops and shot a laser at her. Mneme held out her hand, absorbing the plasma and shooting it back at her. It sent her flying through the air, but she quickly switched to the form of Jean and was able to easily stay airborne.

"Mneme!" a voice shouted to warn her. Turning around, she saw Scarlet Witch using some kind of hex-whip, and it was tearing up the ground on its way towards her. Pietro ran over to his sister and tackled her to the ground, sending the whip off course. While her back was turned, Mystique uprooted a tree with her telekinesis and was about to use it to hit her like a baseball, but Roland ran forward and swiped Mneme's feet out from under her with his tail, making her duck low enough just to miss being hit by a few inches. Suddenly there was the sound of gunfire, and Roland gave her a little wave before he was off to take care of the HYDRA footmen. Mystique threw the tree aside as Mneme jumped up to her, sending shots of fire at her. Mystique cast them aside with a simple swish of her hand and stood in the air, waiting for Mneme to reach her. They both stood high above the ground, and Mneme lunged forward and took a swing, which Mystique blocked and countered with a psychic blow that sent her across the sky. Mneme recovered and teleported behind her, then used a roundhouse kick to send Mystique cutting through the air and smashing into the ground, sending chunks of earth everywhere. When the dust cleared a giant crater could be seen, and Mystique appeared crawling out at Mneme. She jumped up and screamed, the soundwaves so loud and piercing that it forced everyone to cover their ears and grit their teeth in pain. Mneme cast a forcefield around herself, blocking the soundwaves out. Mystique flew at her, fist cocked and ready to punch. Mneme blocked and countered, and they stayed engaged in aerial combat, giving it their all. They were moving so fast and so powerfully that after a few moments everyone lose track of who was the real Mneme.

"I can't tell who's who!" Kitty said, her expression showing how worried she was. She heard the bushes rustle and looked behind her to see Iris jump out, her eyes fixed on one of them. Pietro was still struggling with keeping Scarlet Witch from attacking, wrestling with the relentless girl, but Roland was finished with the HYDRA members and was over to help in no time. Once the two had her down, Pietro kept his eyes affixed to the battle, and Roland glanced at Iris before feeling a weight in his heart and looking at the ground unsurely: He was never going to be able to see Iris as the enemy…

One of the Mnemes flew up higher, drawing dark clouds overhead. She cast a lightning bolt down, but the other dodged it. Scowling, the second summoned her strength and held her arms forward, pointing all her fingers at the first Mneme. In a flash, a million lightning bolts were flying from her fingertips, electrocuting the other. A loud scream was heard, and that Mneme ceased her attack, only to start another. She flew towards the first and grabbed her arms. Swinging her overhead, she threw her to the ground so fast that fire was ignited from the friction on the air. Right before hitting the ground, she used her powers to shoot upwards, and she started spinning around through the air, and shot herself like a torpedo at the other Mneme. When they collided, the defending Mneme was ready for the impact, and once again they were locked in a speedy chain of attacks and resistances. There was so much going on in the single one-on-one battle that it was hard to figure out what attack came from whom, and by the time you figured it out, thirteen other attacks had already been thrown at each other. Their movements were a blur, and it was almost impossible to keep your eyes focused on just one.

Suddenly everything went still and silent. It took a few moments for everyone to realize that one of the Mnemes had stabbed the other straight through the chest with a longsword. Blood started trailing down the blade, and she pulled it out to let the other fall limply to the ground with a thud. Everyone was speechless, not sure what to do since they didn't know if it was the real Mneme or not. Iris, who had kept her eyes on her the whole time, was the only one who knew. Pietro had the urge to run out to the injured one, but he wasn't about to go and defend the wrong girl. The Mneme that was still up in the air floated down gently next to the wounded one and held a hand over her, a sphere of light forming. Iris abruptly sped forward, much to everyone's horror, and bowled the attacker over, using tree roots to bind her to the ground. Iris held her hand on her throat, threatening to easily kill her. Iris held her arm out sideways and used magnetism to summon Mneme's collar from the bushes where she had been first hiding. "You brought that with you?!" she asked in disbelief. Iris clasped it around her neck, forcing her powers to be concealed. Pietro gasped at the sight of Mystique, and he ran to Mneme's side to examine the wound. The X-Men did the same, and Roland knocked Wanda out before running over to Iris and hugging her tightly from behind. She shut her eyes to absorb the feeling of contentment, and when she opened them again they were back to normal. She looked up at him apologetically and hugged him back tightly, a few tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I…I guess those X-geeks aren't _so_ bad," Lance said as he watched them help Mneme up and Iris heal her wounds.

Her face was filled with guilt, but Mneme put her hand on her shoulder to assure her that it was alright. "Everyone makes mistakes," she said to her. "It's not your fault that you were deceived." Iris drew in a sharp breath of surprise and looked up at her, making sure that Mneme really meant it. Her mother smiled down at her kindly, and Iris returned it with an ecstatic grin and a tight hug—she felt safe, like she was where she belonged.

"Mneme," Logan said sternly, grabbing everyone's attention, "you've got some explaining to do."

"Yeah," Jean agreed. "I'm still confused about everything that's going on…"

"And how did you get here?" Kurt asked, his head tilted to the side. "I thought you vere dead!"

A few people nodded in agreement. "I think," Xavier started, "we can talk about that after Mneme puts things back in order." Mneme nodded and took a few steps back, spreading her feet out in a sturdier stance. She furrowed her brow with concentration, her arms out at her sides, parallel with the ground. Taking a deep breath, her hair started to rise from some unknown force, and air started to spin around her. Everyone watched intently as the area around her started turning green, everything turning back to its original state. The crater filled itself in, and the round perimeter of her power was slowly growing in all directions, getting speedier by the second. Eventually, in the distance buildings could be seen rebuilding themselves and reaching towards the sky once more; the sound of animals becoming active again could be heard all around, and with a final blast of blinding light Mneme was finished. Everyone looked around—their surroundings were identical to the way things were before, and although they couldn't see it, everyone that had been injured or killed in the disasters—natural or not—had been restored and was back doing whatever they had been busy with before. "Fantastic!" Xavier marveled, clearly impressed by the sight. Mneme flushed as everyone gasped and looked in joy at her handiwork.

"Wow—that's really amazing!" Scott said to her before hurrying over to Jean, who jumped in his arms, happy just to be alive.

"Look! I've got my powers back!" Kitty exclaimed, shoving her arm through Kurt's face, who teleported away.

"Ah, if feels good to 'port again!" he breathed, sounded relieved as if he were able to stretch his legs again after being bedridden for weeks. Evan was talking to the Morlocks, who Mneme had foreseen he would join someday. They seemed to be getting along pretty well.

Pietro put his arm around Mneme's shoulders. "You really make a difference around here," he said to her, a smile stretched across his face. She returned it, but it faded from her face when she looked back at everyone expressing their bliss for being alive and having their powers back. "What's wrong?"

She took a deep breath and forced a smile onto her face. "Nothing," she said, beaming up at him, but although he wasn't fooled by her phony smile, Pietro let it pass.

Looking around, he noticed a few people were missing. "Where's Mystique? And Wanda? And Neeka? And the rest of those HYDRA geeks?"

Mneme looked down guiltily. "I thought they needed a time out…" she said quietly, pointing to the closed confinement containers and suppressing a giggle. Pietro looked at them with an arched eyebrow, but when he heard pounding and desperate screams to let them out, he laughed.

"Yeah, they'll need a little time to cool down."

Mneme laughed with him and took his hand as they started walking down the dirt road. Iris ran up and grasped her other hand, dragging an embarrassed Roland beside her, their fingers intertwined. The X-Men and the Brotherhood tagged along, seeming to put aside their differences for a while to enjoy that beautiful day, while the Morlocks bid Evan farewell to return to the sewers. "Why don't you come with us?" he offered them. They all looked at Callisto expectantly, awaiting her approval. With a hesitant smile, she nodded, and they all ran to catch up with the others.

* * *

Mneme led the way back to the newly rebuilt Xavier Institute, completely restored from its ashes, people's belongings and all. When they all ran inside, a magnificent dinner was waiting for them, and everyone sat down, famished and ready to dig in and hear Mneme's story. Xavier sat at one end of the table and Magneto at the other, everyone happily sitting next to anyone. There was suddenly a knock at the door. Mneme stood and walked to the door, already knowing whom it was. When she opened the door, she offered them inside. Mneme got to the table and extended it to fit the new arrivals, who everyone greeted happily: Tabitha, X-23, Angel, Havok, Iceman, Cannonball, Magma, Wolfsbane, Jubilee, Multiple, Berserker, and Sunspot. "Welcome back from your survival training!" Hank greeted the New Mutants: It was a pleasant surprise to see them since they were on an island that was very vulnerable to natural disasters….

While everyone ate heartily, Mneme explained what had happened, using her powers to make life-sized imitations of the fights and dialogue. There were a few gasps, and Kitty even gave a little scream as one of the reenactments almost hit her, but they were harmless of course. The New Mutants also told of what had happened on the island for their survival training—since the magnetic fields were messed up, there were an endless amount of tsunamis, and they had even lost Jubilee for a few days. It was certainly clear that they were happy to be home.

It made Mneme happy to see that everyone was getting along—even Sabretooth and Wolverine had it in them to ignore each other. Rogue spoke up, "Since you died and stuff…" she said timidly, not really sure how to word her question, "…where did you go? I mean, which religion…you know…"

"I think it'll be more fun for you to figure it out yourself; choose your own beliefs," she answered. At first Rogue looked a little down, but she soon cheered up when she got back to talking with Remy, who she was holding hands with under the table.

Xavier tapped his wine glass to get everyone's attention. "I think a toast is in order. To Mneme, for restoring the Earth back to its proper state—"

"—and saving everyone's butts!" Kurt added.

"Erm, yes, that too," Xavier agreed. "To Mneme!" he shouted, raising his wine glass.

"To Mneme!" everyone chanted, the adults raising their wine glasses, the youngsters holding up a glass of grape juice. Evan reached over for his aunt's wine glass for a sip, but she slapped his hand before he could reach it, much to his disappointment.

Mneme's face was a bright scarlet, and it took her a few moments to find her voice. "I really do appreciate your thanks, but you're giving me too much credit," she told them. "The real thanks goes to all of you, for not giving in to HYDRA, and to Pietro, Iris, and Roland." Everyone waited for her to continue, the three mentioned looking up at her in surprise. "Without Roland, we never would've gotten Iris back. It's because of him that Iris—and X-23—were able to escape. If Pietro hadn't been so determined, I would've never been brought back, and if Iris hadn't stopped Mystique, I'd have been obliterated. So…to everyone!" she shouted, raising her own glass, and everyone else followed suit.

After a delicious dinner, everyone headed outside to the pool and to just run around. Iris and Bobby had made working waterslides that everyone was enjoying, and had moved on to an ice sculpture contest. Ororo and Hank were having a pleasant conversation with Colossus and Mastermind, and Logan and Sabretooth were having a cook off at the grill. Surprisingly, after the huge dinner everyone just ate, there was still more room for some delicious ribs and steak. If they weren't playing football or swimming in the pool, they were just hanging around and talking. Roland, being cold-blooded, sat on the side of the pool next to Mneme since the sun had already set and there wasn't much warmth—that is, after he beat everyone in four different swimming races. Mneme sat with her feet dangling in the water, looking down at the surface, her eyes unfocused.

She didn't know why, but she could hear screaming and smell blood, but nothing like a Human's blood…. It was so hot, she could feel fire all around her, and there was the sense of the innocent being slain, evil prevailing consuming her senses…. Suddenly something leapt out of the water and grabbed her shoulders, pulling her in before she had a chance to get her mind back on track. She cocked her arm back, fist balled up tightly, ready to punch whoever just tried to attack her—but she stopped when she realized no one was attacking her. Pietro raised his hands up to show her that he meant no harm and was just trying to have a little fun. Mneme grinned and shook her head, lacing her fingers with his. He pointed upward, indicating that he needed air, but she stopped him from swimming to the surface. She leaned forward and planted her lips on his, breathing air into him. They stayed like that for a few moments, the rush of their heartbeats filling their ears—until they opened their eyes at the feeling of someone watching them. They looked over and saw Kitty suppressing a giggle…with a _camera_?! She swam back up to the surface and hopped out of the pool, but by the time Pietro and Mneme were at the surface the X-Men girls were already crowded around, giggling. Mneme sank until her nose was underwater, her face beat red and annoyed bubbles gurgling out of her nose. Pietro looked at her and grinned. "Ah, let 'em look!" he said to her, lifting his elbows up onto the concrete. "Then they can dream about how they wish their boyfriends kiss as good as me."

To Mneme, that just made her feel even worse, just she couldn't help but to laugh.

"Hey, vhat you guys looking at?" Kurt asked, approaching the girls with Evan at his side. Kitty showed them the picture on her camera, and immediately their faces fell.

"Ugh…" Evan said with disgust, instantly turning around and returning to go play football. He shot Pietro a glare on his way; he was never going to get along with that silver rat.

"I'll never understand why he hates me so much…" Pietro said thoughtfully, putting a finger to his chin and really giving it some thought.

"You're joking, right?" Mneme asked, her eyebrow raised. "You've stolen his money, you've beaten each other up, you're always comparing basketball skills, you—"

"Okay, okay!" Pietro said, stopping her short. "Geez, you're making it sound like I'm the bad guy here." Mneme's shoulders slouched exasperatedly. There was a slight pause before he spoke again, "So what's been bothering you?"

"Huh?" she asked, not sure what he was getting at—or at least pretending to not be sure.

"I can see it in your face. Something's on your mind, like you feel like your job's not over yet," he said.

"What—how'd you know?" she asked, stunned.

"Eh, after I've known you this long and gotten so close to you, it's not hard to pick up on your vibes or read your facial expressions, even if they only last for a split second."

Mneme sighed. "I can tell there's trouble—somewhere, but not here. I think it's on a different planet, maybe even in another galaxy—possibly in another universe."

Pietro gave her a sidelong stare. "So why is it bugging you if it's far away?"

She hesitated, not quite sure how to explain her feelings. "I was given all these powers for a reason—and I feel like it's my responsibility to help whoever needs and deserves it, no matter where they are. I have almost every power, Pietro," her voice sounding both sad and serious. "I should use them to defend the innocent and defenseless." Roland—who was listening nearby, tensed up; he knew this wasn't going to go over well with Iris.

Pietro looked down at the water. "I know…. You don't have to say you're going to leave."

Mneme looked up at him with sad gray eyes: She could tell that it was hurting him on an ungodly level. She looked for something to say, but there was nothing comforting that came to mind.

"I've known for a long time that you were going to go farther than just protecting the Earth." Pietro gave a somber chuckle. "With your powers, it would be lazy to stay with just one planet." He sighed again and looked away, hiding his face from Mneme's view.

She looked at him with a heavy heart, and then she saw a few ripples in the water next to him. Her eyes widened. "Are…are you crying?" she whispered.

"What?" he asked, turning to look at her with a false smile. "Oh, no, it's just pool water. A bit splashed onto my face…" he lied, wiping the water from his face.

Mneme shook her head. "That's it. I can't go. I've become too attached to too many people, and they to me. I can't leave."

Pietro put a hand on her shoulder, and her eyes locked with his. "People out there need you, more than anyone here does. If you feel you should go, then do it." Mneme looked into his eyes and was lost in them, torn between her friends and family and her duties. "Just make me one promise. I want you to come back every once in a while and visit everyone; I don't' think anyone would be able to deal with never seeing you ever again, but we can work with some visits."

"Of course I'll visit," she said with a sad smile. "I'll always watch over you guys, and I promise I'll come in person, not send a duplicate. But…"

"But what?"

"You have to make me a promise."

"Uh…okay…"

"Promise me that you'll go out there and live a full life. You'll get a wife and have kids, and make your own decisions. Don't build the rest of your life around me. Do you promise?"

"No way!" he said angrily. "I'm staying with you."

"Pietro, I won't be here, and things will probably be too dangerous to take you with me." she tried to convince. Pietro didn't look at her. "Please, I don't want you to waste your life by centering it around me. There's a beautiful woman out there, and she's waiting for someone like you to come along and fall in love with. I already know who she is, and you have a strong heart. Strong enough to forget about me and live life the way you should."

Pietro gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, trying to force the tears back, but they flowed freely. "I—I don't want to forget you! I want to stay with you forever…" He relaxed and looked sorrowfully up at the star-filled sky. "I'll promise to live my life the way it would be without you, but I could never forget you."

While they were talking, everyone had been going inside to go to bed or leaving for their own homes, and eventually it was only Pietro, Mneme, and Roland outside. The reptilian boy stood and walked inside, preparing himself to tell Iris what her mother was planning. _I know he'll break it to her gently_, Mneme thought as she watched him walk through the doorway.

Xavier, sitting at the coffee table next to the window, looked away from the sad conversation between the two young lovers. He looked down at his glass of tea as Magneto continued to stare with mixed emotions at Mneme and Pietro. "She's only doing what she feels best," Xavier reminded him.

Magneto scoffed. "I couldn't care less what she does. I'm glad she's leaving; all she ever did was hinder my son's abilities." There was a slight pause while Xavier sighed at his reaction; he had hoped Magneto would see things with more of an open mind. "You know that things aren't going to stay like this."

Xavier wheeled over to the next room, where Kurt and Kitty had fallen asleep watching _Titanic_, her head resting on his shoulder. He shut off the television before answering. "I was afraid you would say that."

"Just because that girl has saved the Earth, I will not change my motives."

"Nor will I," countered Xavier, looking up at his lost friend. "You will see, one day, the mistake you are making."

Magneto spat, "You fool."

* * *

When Pietro woke up, he was expecting to see Mneme lying next to him on the concrete, but she was gone. _She left…she really left…_he thought to himself, still not believing that it was true. Iris and Roland came outside at that moment, the morning's sun glowing off of them. He dreaded having to explain to Iris why Mneme left, but he did, with the help of Roland and his dry erase board. Iris was said and had some tears, but she understood. After giving him a quick hug, she wrote, "_Roland and I have to go to school now. Bye, Daddy!_" Pietro smiled at the words and watched her run to Jean's vehicle with her backpack, Roland putting on his image inducer before hopping into his seat.

Pietro decided to stop by Mystique's house before he officially skipped school. Magneto agreed to give her another chance—surprisingly—and her extra powers eventually wore off without the constant replenishment from HYDRA. Wanda, on the other hand, was back under Mastermind's memory swipe, so she was pleasant again—well, at least slightly pleasant. Mneme had fixed every Human's—EVERY Human's—memory to forget that the magnetic fields were ever messed up. As far as they were concerned, every day had gone on normally. It was as if HYDRA had never found her parents' notes or did any of the experiments, besides on Roland and Iris. The New Mutants had passed their survival test and were back for normal training at the Xavier Institute, and the Brotherhood—like Magneto—did not let Mneme's saving of the world interfere with their hatred for the X-Men. It was almost as if they had forgotten that the night before they were talking and laughing with the X-Men like best friends. So as Pietro lay down in the field of flowers that he had spent so much time with Mneme in, he looked at the clouds and let his mind drift. It was a great day to skip school, but he still wondered how she was doing, whom she was fighting or saving, and when she was going to visit. He chuckled as he stood up. "Well, I'd better get working on that normal life Mneme wants me to have," he said with a laugh as he shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking leisurely to school—it was almost lunchtime, and his stomach was grumbling.

**THE END**


End file.
